Abstract
What are the foundational moments in social and political history that provide the building blocks for the 2016 election? Our paper looks at the convergence and intersection of three radically different social movements: Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party, and Black Lives Matter – in order to draw inferences about the 2016 election and the presidency of Donald Trump. Our research shows that the three movements dramatically changed the relationship between political elites and citizens, cultivating and rallying around the broad notion of the “illegitimacy of the state” – an idea that was central to the 2016 presidential election and remains critical in the present. We argue that the aggregate and abstract frustrations of Occupy, the Tea Party and BLM fit squarely within the concept of our theory of “state illegitimacy” that Donald Trump exploited during the campaign and continues to cynically exploit during his presidency: the illegitimacy of economic institutions, the illegitimacy of a black president, and the illegitimacy of elected officials and both neoliberalism and neoconservatism.
Within our paper, we adopt a methodological approach rooted in a movement-centered assessment of the 2016 election and its history, wherein we identify the roots of the public desire for abstract notions of state illegitimacy and change, and the social movements that help propel these ideas into the mainstream of American presidential politics. In short, we adopt an American Political Development approach that looks to path dependence research in highlighting the significance of early stages of institutional and ideational development in shaping future political outcomes.
Presented as part of the panel discussion, "Inequality and America's Fragile Democracy".