Discourse Analysis of Khatami Administration and Status of Poverty Alleviation in It

In this article, the reformist discourse of Khatami's Administration is analyzed and the status of poverty alleviation is designated. The authors presume that discourses construct realities, so discourse analysis is important for tracing the roots of any phenomena. Therefore, the authors have examined the related texts (including the selected speeches and development plans) by using Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory and Fairclaugh's Critical Discourse Analysis. Findings indicate that in the reformist discourse of Khatami's Administration, "political development" was the master signifier and other signifiers, including poverty alleviation, gained their final meaning as the result of subjection to it. In other words, poverty alleviation was postponed until the achievement of political development. According to the theoretical findings, the reformist discourse was constituted by articulating the signifiers of liberalism discourse and the Islamic Revolution meta-discourse. As poverty alleviation is not the master signifier in liberalism -it is in fact a by-product of political and economic development- the reality which is produced by this discourse does not pay attention to poverty alleviation as a main issue and marginalizes it.