In The Rhetorical Situation, Lloyd Bitzer provides testimony that there are three

constituents of any rhetorical situation: exigence, audience, and constraints.

Specifically, Bitzer argues that rhetorical situations invite utterance or discourse. As
the author himself puts it, Rhetorical situation may be defined as a complex of
persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence
which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the
situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant
modification of the exigence. Although some people believe that a rhetorical
address gives existence to the situation, Bitzer insists that it is the situation, which
calls the discourse into existence. In sum, then, his view is that rhetorical discourse
is called into existence by situation.
I have mixed feelings. In my view, the argument that Bitzer makes can be
valid for certain situations. For instance, the presence of rhetorical discourse
obviously indicates the presence of a rhetorical situation. In addition, a work may be
rhetorical because it is a response to a situation of a certain kind. Some might object,
of course, on the grounds that some situations can be rhetorical. Yet, I would argue
that it depends on the situation and the discourse. Overall, then, I believe both that
rhetoric is situational and situations are rhetorical--an important point to make
given the never-ending need of situations and need for discourse.