Conservative social movement activism: tea party activism and scalar politics in campaigning for public office

This dissertation is an account of conservative social movement activism. Conservative political projects are characterized by advocacy of market-centric state policies. Conservative social movement activism is one variety of conservative politics distinguishable by the focus on the inclusion of more voices in democratic institutions. As a subject of academic research contentious politics in general and social movements in particular have spawned far-reaching and well-developed dialogue (see edited volumes by Aminzade et al. 2001; Leitner, Peck and Sheppard 2007; McAdam, McCarthy and Zald 1996a). Social scientists from the disciplines of Political Science, Sociology, History, Anthropology and Geography all contribute a wide array of theoretical constructs and methodological applications for a truly multi-disciplinary discussion on the topic. Noticeably underrepresented in this corpus of work is attention to conservative contentious politics.;What follows is a case study of Tea Party activism as a variety of conservative contentious politics. This study approaches the role of Tea Party activism during the 2010 election cycle in what is arguable the height of Tea Party influence in United States' politics. One of the locations where the influence of Tea Party activism was most evident is Tennessee. The question at the center of this project is how did Tea Party activism during the 2010 election cycle shape scalar politics in the Tennessee Republican gubernatorial primary? By applying MacKinnon's (2011) scalar politics to public speeches made by the Republican candidates for governor in Tennessee, I find that Tea Party activism effectively increased the scale of movement participants' influence in state politics. I conclude the candidates made normal the role of Tea Party activism in campaigning for public office in Tennessee. The implications of this study point to new fields of inquiry into contentious politics specific to electoral politics.