Dufour, Mathieu <br/><br/>
Topoi and the legitimization of austerity policies. A study of La Presse’s editorials from 1980 to 2015 

 -  2019.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> This article focuses on the dissemination of the topoi of a neoliberal vulgate, by means of a longitudinal discursive analysis, from 1980 to 2015, of the editorials of La Presse, one of Quebec’s leading daily newspapers. The thematic, argumentative, pragmatic, and enunciative analysis of this corpus is conducted in dialogue with the economic theories involved in the editorial statements. For, although the popular beliefs ( topoi) developed or mobilized by La Presse oversimplify these theories to the extreme, the connections between these two levels of circulation are constitutive of dispersion rules of the discursive austerity event. This study shows how the construction of an anti-deficit topos in the 1980s immediately rejects (without the need for argument) any policy involving public spending. Studying how this topos adapts to different changes in the economic situation by generating and articulating itself with other austerity-related topoi, the analysis shows the conditions of possibility of permanent austerity, legitimizing among other things a criminalization of strikes and a standardization of emergency laws, decreeing the working conditions of employees.