Agenda-setting through topic shift in Tanzanian parliamentary debate: The derailment of strategic maneuvering

Abstract

This article examines a specific attempt of agenda-setting which is realised by topic shift in the confrontation stage of a critical discussion as an MP introduces a ‘new agenda’ of discussion in an institutional context of the Tanzanian parliamentary debate in Kiswahili. The article further investigates how this topic shift results in a derailment of strategic manoeuvring as the institutional rules of parliament are violated. The data analysed in this article come from the Hansard transcripts of official parliamentary proceedings as collected in their original form from the Bunge’s website. These data are analysed from the perspective of pragma-dialectics, paying particular attention to the confrontation stage. The findings indicate that the kind of topic shift in which an MP introduces a
completely different topic can result in the violation of the institutional rules (dialectical standards) of the Tanzanian parliament, hence derailment of strategic manoeuvring. The article further suggests that, although the possibilities for the introduction of a new irrelevant topic in parliamentary debates are strictly limited, MPs still attempt to make strategic topic shifts by (sub)consciously violating the institutional rules of the parliament.