The Strategy of Rhetoric

Download or read book The Strategy of Rhetoric written by Riker, William Harrison Riker and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He discusses several heresthetical maneuvers that made the Federalists' narrow victory possible, such as their proposal of a constitution that was broader than most citizens would have preferred, and their design of the ratification process as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, so that they could prevent any ratifying state from altering it. Riker concludes by examining the relationship between rhetoric and heresthetic. He shows that both were necessary for the Federalist victory: rhetoric, to build support for Federalist positions, and heresthetic, to structure the choice process so that this level of support would be sufficient.