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God, Victim, Governor: Ideological Entrepreneurs and the Claim to Govern in the Discourse of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel

Nilsson Alsterbage, Bensu LU (2026) ENTN19 20261
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
This thesis examines the discursive mechanisms through which prominent technology founders mobilise entrepreneurial identity to construct and legitimise visions of political governance in their public discourse. Drawing on Faircloughian Critical Discourse Analysis and the concept of ideological entrepreneurship, the study analyses a corpus of public texts produced by Peter Thiel and Elon Musk between 2007 and 2025. Grounded in social constructionism, the analysis proceeds across three thematic domains: the critique of democratic institutions, the framing of societal crises as governance failures, and the positioning of entrepreneurial actors as superior to existing political structures. The study identifies a stable, three-operation... (More)
This thesis examines the discursive mechanisms through which prominent technology founders mobilise entrepreneurial identity to construct and legitimise visions of political governance in their public discourse. Drawing on Faircloughian Critical Discourse Analysis and the concept of ideological entrepreneurship, the study analyses a corpus of public texts produced by Peter Thiel and Elon Musk between 2007 and 2025. Grounded in social constructionism, the analysis proceeds across three thematic domains: the critique of democratic institutions, the framing of societal crises as governance failures, and the positioning of entrepreneurial actors as superior to existing political structures. The study identifies a stable, three-operation discursive mechanism through which governance claims are embedded as presuppositions rather than advanced as arguments, authority is borrowed from established cultural and intellectual traditions, and subject positions are constructed that simultaneously cast the founder as exceptional visionary and persecuted victim. A temporal dimension is further identified, distinguishing between anticipatory and performative governance discourse, wherein the Victim position intensifies as governance claims become materially consequential. The findings contribute to Critical Entrepreneurship Studies by specifying the structural form of ideological entrepreneurship and its implications for democratic accountability, while demonstrating Faircloughian CDA as a productive analytical framework for the field. (Less)
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author
Nilsson Alsterbage, Bensu LU
supervisor
organization
course
ENTN19 20261
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Ideological Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Identity, Critical Entrepreneurship Studies, Critical Discourse Analysis, Entrepreneurialism
language
English
id
9242568
date added to LUP
2026-06-26 10:33:38
date last changed
2026-06-26 10:33:38
@misc{9242568,
  abstract     = {{This thesis examines the discursive mechanisms through which prominent technology founders mobilise entrepreneurial identity to construct and legitimise visions of political governance in their public discourse. Drawing on Faircloughian Critical Discourse Analysis and the concept of ideological entrepreneurship, the study analyses a corpus of public texts produced by Peter Thiel and Elon Musk between 2007 and 2025. Grounded in social constructionism, the analysis proceeds across three thematic domains: the critique of democratic institutions, the framing of societal crises as governance failures, and the positioning of entrepreneurial actors as superior to existing political structures. The study identifies a stable, three-operation discursive mechanism through which governance claims are embedded as presuppositions rather than advanced as arguments, authority is borrowed from established cultural and intellectual traditions, and subject positions are constructed that simultaneously cast the founder as exceptional visionary and persecuted victim. A temporal dimension is further identified, distinguishing between anticipatory and performative governance discourse, wherein the Victim position intensifies as governance claims become materially consequential. The findings contribute to Critical Entrepreneurship Studies by specifying the structural form of ideological entrepreneurship and its implications for democratic accountability, while demonstrating Faircloughian CDA as a productive analytical framework for the field.}},
  author       = {{Nilsson Alsterbage, Bensu}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{God, Victim, Governor: Ideological Entrepreneurs and the Claim to Govern in the Discourse of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}