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Death at the Polls

Experiencing and Coping with Political Defeat

McMaster University

Steven Kleinknecht

Department of Sociology at McMaster University

This article examines means of coping adopted by defeated politicians to manage their unexpected loss. In particular, we consider how they deploy deflection rhetoric to claim that circumstances beyond their control resulted in the undesirable outcome. The data mainly derive from transcribed conversations with Canadian politicians at both provincial and federal levels of government. The analysis offers a case study of disengagement and how individuals, forced to assume a new status involuntarily, attend to the presented challenges. An understanding of social life is enhanced by investigating not only the dynamics of identity construction but also processes of "un-becoming."

Key Words: role exit • politicians • rationalizations • social death • disengagement

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 34, No. 6, 707-738 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0891241605279839


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