FIGURES DU SARCASME POLITIQUE : DYNAMIQUES DE PERSONNALISATION DU CONFLIT ET FRAGILISATION DU DÉBAT DÉMOCRATIQUE
FIGURES OF POLITICAL SARCASM: DYNAMICS OF THE PERSONALISATION OF CONFLICT AND THE UNDERMINING OF DEMOCRATIC DEBATE

Summary/Abstract: This article examines sarcasm as a discursive strategy in Moroccan political discourse in the post-Arab Spring context, characterized by political conflict, ideological polarization, and the growing influence of social media as spaces for the circulation of public speech. Based on a qualitative corpus composed of excerpts drawn from more than forty videos featuring Moroccan political figures, including Abdelilah Benkirane, Hamid Chabat, Driss Lachgar, and Abdellatif Ouahbi, the study adopts a discourse-analytic and pragmatic approach to investigate the functions, mechanisms, and effects of sarcasm in political interactions. The analysis demonstrates that sarcasm goes beyond a mere stylistic device and operates as a powerful instrument of symbolic disqualification and management of power relations. It contributes to the construction of negative ethos through rhetorical mechanisms such as hyperbole, irony, caricature, implicature, and the reactivation of the opponent’s biographical past. In this sense, sarcasm shifts political conflict from programmatic and ideological debates toward interpersonal confrontation focused on individuals, their behavior, and their moral image rather than on public policies and substantive political issues. The study also highlights the interactional and populist dimensions of sarcastic discourse. By using familiar language, popular references, and accessible forms of ridicule, political actors seek to strengthen audience connivance and foster emotional adhesion. However, this dynamic contributes to the impoverishment of democratic debate, the polarization of political exchanges, and the transformation of politics into a form of discursive spectacle. Sarcasm therefore appears as an ambivalent discursive practice, oscillating between legitimate political criticism and the weakening of democratic deliberation in contemporary Moroccan political communication contexts today.

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