Modern Political Protest in the US: Conceptual Framework, Values, Practices

Abstract

The article analyzes theoretical and methodological approaches to issues related to socio-political mobilization. The main historical eras (premodern, modernity and postmodern) are taken as a basis, which determine various forms, types and practices of political protest. Thus, it is concluded that the level of development of society directly affects political actors, institutional architecture in structural, procedural and regulatory terms, which determines the nature of socio-political actionism. Attention is paid to the practices of postmodern society, which have their own specifics, which is expressed in the formation of a dichotomous, ideological-value spectrum, the struggle for symbolic capital, antagonism between different identities and related social narratives. A special place in the analysis is given to the political-regime configuration, in particular, the post-democratic crisis, which, in the case of American public practices, is to a certain extent overcome through the mechanics of agonistic and counter-democracy. The study uses the method of situational analysis (case studies), which has its own epistemological variability in the form of positivist, critical and interpretive (post-positivist) components. The article also examines the public political struggle in the United States in line with symbolic policies during the presidency of D. Trump. The repertoire of American protest is analyzed in the designated methodological context. Particular attention is paid to the generation aspect of the unconventional protest movement, which is one of the key in both the United States, in particular, and Russia, which is paid to part of the comparativist analysis. The conclusion assesses the relevance of two hypotheses formulated by E. V. Brodovskaya, M. A. Davydova, E. A. Eremin regarding the influence of the level of rigidity of the political regime and the legitimacy of the inactive part of society on the continuum of political manifestation in the United States. If the first conclusion had its practical expression on the example of the American case, then the second looks less unambiguous.