Van Dijk’s (1998b) “ideological square” (p. 33) explains the dichotomous character
of the prevailing discourses in societies. The ideological square gets its label
from the four dimensions that make it up and acts as a justification for the presence
of inequality in the society by polarizing in-groups and out-groups through a double
process of emphasis and mitigation. Ideological discourses emphatically present
the good properties/actions of “us” and the bad properties/actions of “them.” The
discourse also mitigates the bad properties/actions of the in-group and the good
properties/actions of the out-group. Van Dijk (1995) maintains that ideologies are
often articulated on the basis of the ideological square