A dictionary definition of the term "political" might read something like, "of or concerned with government, political parties, or politicians." Such a definition is not precisely wrong, but rather is outdated and falls short by not accounting for what Nancy Fraser calls "the shift from a repressive model of domination to a hegemonic one." If at some point we believed governments 5 to operate exclusively through law and the threat and enforcement of concrete punishment, such as imprisonment, monetary penalties, etc., and called this and everything that directly influenced it "politics," we have now acknowledged the role of hegemony, which legitimizes law and supports the exercise of power.

This is significant because, under the first definition, the only cultural products that can be 10 said to be political must explicitly address issues of political partisanship or governance, while under the second definition, all cultural objects can be traced to a certain ideology-in accordance, negotiation, or opposition to hegemony —and therefore be political.

But we do not feel that we are discussing politics or viewing politics all the time, even if we are, according to our definition of "the political." This is because even if all subject matter is 15 (at least potentially) political, not all talk is so. When conducting her study on political talk, Nina Eliasoph cited Hanna Pitkin in concluding that "pub-lic-spirited conversation happens when citizens speak in terms of 'justice'."

The second paragraph of the passage serves to

(A) offer an alternative to the definitions previously presented
(B) discuss a revision of the definitions previously presented
(C) delineate the distinction between the definitions previously presented
(D) delineate an exception to the definitions previously presented
(E) describe the inadequacy of the definitions previously presented



According to a theory presented in the passage, a person is engaging in public interest conversation if that person discusses which of the following?

(A) Justice
(B) Theater
(C) Sexism
(D) Economics
(E) Politicians



Select a sentence from the first or second paragraph that levels an explicit criticism.