Boyko, S. I. The Concept of Nation in the Discourse About a Russian ‘Powerless Party’ (the Case Study of ‘Yabloko’)

Abstract: The concept of nation can be obviously called one of the key concepts of our time both in Russia and abroad. However, in recent years there has been a visible paradox in understanding the phenomena of nation and nationalism. The growth of the importance of national issues was associated, on one hand, with the dominating liberal ideology of ‘multiculturalism’ and, on the other hand, with the decrease of interest towards traditional political ideologies. As a political concept, ‘nation’ is a discursive construct which meaning is defi ned with the intergroup (interparty) struggle. This meaning cannot be stable, because it changes along with the transformations in the balance of political power. Consequently, a researcher studying this concept should always ask himself what purposes are being pursued by the political forces that use the concept of ‘nation’ or struggle for the monopoly privilege to defi ne the meaning of the term ‘nation’. To study the concept of nation in the political party discourse about a Russian ‘powerless party’, the author of the article uses the conceptological approach developed by V. Makarenko. The purpose of the present article is to create a methodological construct for studying the concept of nation in the discourse about political parties of modern Russia. For a differentiated analysis of the discourse about the ‘powerless party’, the author offers a conceptological version of the dramaturgic approach to the political party system. Analyzing the concept of nation in documents of the democratic party ‘Yabloko’, the author notes that the party rhetoric may change depending on the political environment. However, these variations have their own limits, too. In case of the party ‘Yabloko’ they are framed with the civil concept of nation. Noteworthy that the concept remains the same in all party public declarations.

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