📖 Strategic Issue Emphasis?

Many political practices, like reading and educating oneself to reach a well-founded position on an issue, formulating arguments or discussing them among peers, require a certain level of mastery of one’s language (Grotl ̈uschen et al., 2019, p. 34). But millions of German citizens, most of them potential voters, struggle with understanding complex language like the one used in election manifestos. This includes not only people with different sorts of disabilities, but also dementia patients, immigrants and their descendants and millions of citizens displaying adult illiteracy. In order to involve these people equally in the political process, the United Nations (2006) and Germany in particular (BMJV, 2018) promotes the translation and distribution of easy-read manifestos [ERMs], written in easy language. The goal of these manifestos is to ensure equal opportunities for the political participation of all citizens.