Introduction
In political communication, what is left unsaid can be as powerful as what is stated. Silence, omission, and denial are not mere absences of speech; they are often deliberate rhetorical tools. When it comes to Blame Avoidance Strategies, silence plays a central but often unacknowledged role. It allows political actors to sidestep accountability, reshape narratives, and control the public framing of controversy—without uttering a word. This article explores how strategic silence operates as a presentational and discursive technique in modern governance. Using a problematization framework, it examines how silence functions ideologically, institutionally, and epistemologically in the maintenance of political irresponsibility…
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