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Introduction: Political debates on television were usually designed to provide viewers trustful information about the political candidates and their manifestos. Unfortunately, the political situation and the communication media have undergone such a change that those manifestos have become mere mediatic representations. In this article, we will analyze how the speech and the actantial position of the candidates get adjusted according to the mediatic show to become the winners, or in the best scenario, as television heroes, or maybe just the opposite. Method: Our main objective is not empirical but theoretical and methodological. We do not wish to describe the electoral debates in Spain. We are trying to highlight a model of analysis, which can be applied to different contexts, so we can contribute to fix a series of operative concepts, in a new framework. Results: To apply the suggested model will allow, among other things, to identify not only the political mediatization effects but also the marked tendency to create ceremonial gestalt in front of planned mediatic events. At the same, time it will allow to identify the aggressiveness and conflictive graduation of the different presidential candidates on the televised debates. Conclusions: From our point of view, it is a clear correlation with the polarization index that public opinion has experienced as well as a tendency to a conflictual spectacularization that television genres have developed in the last decades as a new way of doing politics and journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores what happens when the term "austerity" becomes a global catchword. Specifically, we study how this term has been used in national policy making in the Portuguese and Spanish parliaments from the 1970s until recently. We show that although Portugal and Spain were in a somewhat different situation regarding the 2008 economic crisis, the increased popularity of the term austerity occurred practically simultaneously in the Portuguese and Spanish parliaments. This suggests that the term's popularity in political debates is not solely determined by a nation's political or fiscal situation. Rather, our contention is that employing the term austerity to discuss government policies became a global fashion after the fiscal crisis of 2008. The study also shows why austerity became an increasingly popular concept: the term changed from being mainly used in fiscal policy to being commonly used in other policy areas too. Related Articles: Exadaktylos, Theofanis, and Nikolaos Zahariadis. 2014. "Quid pro Quo: Political Trust and Policy Implementation in Greece during the Age of Austerity." Politics & Policy 42 (1): 160‐183. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12058 Monza, Sabina, and Eva Anduiza. 2016. "The Visibility of the EU in the National Public Spheres in Times of Crisis and Austerity." Politics & Policy 44 (3): 499‐524. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12163 Sager, Fritz, and Markus Hinterleitner. 2016. "How do Credit Rating Agencies Rate? An Implementation Perspective on the Assessment of Austerity Programs during the European Debt Crisis." Politics & Policy 44 (4): 783‐815. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12165 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]