Abstract
With the help of the extended pragma-dialectical theory, this
paper aims to analyze how Al Aswany, an Egyptian political columnist who argued
in favor of the feasibility of democratization before the Arab Spring,
maneuvered strategically by argumentation from example in two of his columns in
supporting the standpoint that the Egyptian people had become no longer
politically inactive. The analysis is conducted in view of the institutional
preconditions of political columns and the specific rhetorical exigency a
columnist may face in this specific argumentative situation.