DISCURSIVELY CONSTITUTING DEMOCRATIC POWER: A SOCIO-COGNITIVE CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ZOHRAN MAMDANI’S VICTORY SPEECH

Abstract

This research examines how political authority, legitimacy, and collective identity are discursively constructed
during moments of democratic transition by analyzing Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech following his electoral
success in New York City. Rather than treating electoral victory as a procedural outcome, the research
highlights the role of victory speeches in transforming electoral success into morally justified and collectively
owned political power. The research aims to explore how Mamdani’s discourse reframes political authority as
emerging from shared working-class experience, collective struggle, and counter-hegemonic ideology. The
research adopts a qualitative approach, employing textual analysis within a Critical Discourse Analysis
framework grounded in Teun A. van Dijk’s socio-cognitive theory. Mamdani’s victory speech serves as the data
and is analyzed to identify ideological meanings, group representations, mental models, and argumentative
strategies that legitimize political authority. The findings show that the speech constructs “the people” as a
legitimate political subject through representations of embodied labor, shared hardship, and collective agency.
Ideological polarization, structured through van Dijk’s Ideological Square, contrasts an inclusive working-class
in-group with elite political and economic out-groups. Narrative exemplars and affective metaphors function as
mental models that translate ideology into lived experience, while argumentation frames governance as an
ethical necessity. The research underscores the importance of victory speeches as sites where democratic power
is discursively constituted and normalized. By applying a socio-cognitive CDA to post-electoral discourse, the
research contributes to political discourse studies and offers insights for future research on ideological
legitimation and democratic participation.