The Gospel of Bernie Sanders: Discourse Analysis for a Radical Democratic Politics

Sammanfattning: This study aims to contribute to the knowledge of activism, specifically the culture of political activism at the level of the individual lived experience. Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s Hegemony and Socialist Strategy Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (2014) draws from Antonio Gramsci’s concept of cultural hegemony and develops a theoretical framework for how social movements can effectively organize and mobilize for social change. Their framework suggests that social change requires a discourse among a plurality of agents that frames power inequality as oppression. Bernie Sanders’ movement illustrates how diversity can mobilize around a shared issue and furthermore provides evidence for the construction of a common discourse. The empirical evidence obtained from fieldwork conducted alongside political activists involved in the Bernie Sanders 2020 Presidential Campaign contributes to filling in the gap between theory and praxis. This paper explores the dynamics of discourse reproduction and cultural hegemony within a contemporary leftist project. In 2015, Bernie Sanders began a movement with a vision so different from contemporary American politics, it is often referred to as a political revolution. The campaign is merely a moment within the movement, and this essay shall discuss how the movement is maintained through discourse.