The Rhetorical Capital of Theories: The Democratic Peace and the Road to the Roadmap

Abstract

The article introduces the concept of rhetorical capital, which is defined as the aggregate persuasive resources inherent in entities. It then proceeds to apply the concept to the study of theories and identifies the structural duality of accessibility and incomprehensibility overlaid with the prestige of objectivity as the theories' resources of rhetorical capital that render them vulnerable to political and rhetorical abuses. The article focuses on the democratic peace thesis and its mobilization by the Israeli right, mainly by Benjamin Netanyahu and Natan Sharansky, in helping to bring about the Roadmap.