Diagnosis and prognosis of neo-liberal globalization: From the Tea Party movement’s perspective

Abstract

Alter-globalization movement (AGM) studies have been thus far focused almost exclusively on the left movements’ struggles against neo-liberal globalization. This article uses the Tea Party movement to demonstrate how a right-wing movement reacts to neo-liberal globalization. It discusses the grass-roots Tea Partiers’ (TPers) diagnoses and prognoses of neo-liberal globalization’s impacts in three realms: the US economy, popular control of the political processes and the preservation of the national community. My findings show that while the TPers largely agree with the left AGMs in locating the problems and causes of neo-liberal globalization, their solutions diverge sharply from that of the latter and point to a US-dominated neo-liberal global order. By thematizing conservative movements’ relation to AGM, this article indicates the possible coalitions and cleavages between the right-wing movements and left-leaning AGMs, which suggest that AGMs should not be solely defined negatively vis-à-vis neo-liberal globalization.

From asymmetric dependency to discursive disengagement: How social movements and the media/public talked past each other

“…For instance, in the Egyptian revolution, bloggers and social media commenters offered alternative narratives of movements, problematizing the dramatization devices employed in the mainstream newspapers (Harlow and Johnson, 2011). Conservative movements, such as the Tea Party Movement, encountered a cold shoulder in the public sphere; yet, by mobilizing hatred against the liberal mainstream media in digital enclaves, they managed to target and absorb staunch followers who later exerted a tremendous impact on the electoral processes (Atkinson and Berg, 2012;Cao, 2017). In other words, contemporary populist movements -both on the left and right -took the establishment media as points of contention, instead of the unproblematic background and vehicle of mobilization.…”

“…Digitally mediated activism, be it the left-leaning Occupy or right-wing Tea Party movement, has mobilized a large following without the media or public's notice or sympathy in the initial stage (Costanza-Chock, 2012;Gitlin, 2012). Moreover, increasingly more studies have shown that movements have articulated alternative discourses of grievances against the mainstream media/public's understanding in protected digital spaces (Cao, 2017;Polletta and Kretschmer, 2013). In other word, the asymmetric dependency model's explanatory power needs to be reassessed under the increasingly diversified media landscape (Cottle, 2008).…”