Titov V.V. The technologies of “color revolutions” in the modern world: “struggle for meanings” and the nation-state identity crisis

Abstract: The research subject covers the technologies, characterizing the specificity of “color revolutions” in the modern world. The author analyzes the basic mechanisms, applied in “color” protests of the early 21st century: public consciousness patterns reformatting; the mechanism of a “symbolical victim”; the political space metaphorization and symbolization; making use of the nation-state identity crisis. The author compares the experience of successful and unsuccessful “color” protests on the post-Soviet political space (Georgia, Ukraine and others) and the most prominent political practices of the Arab Spring. The study is based on the combination of the comparative cross-national approach and the case-study method (consideration of particular cases of “color revolutions”). The scientific novelty of the study consists in the attempt to detect and analyze such fundamental mechanisms of “color” protests as the space of meaning reframing, metaphorization and a “slot machine”, the destruction of nation-state identity. The author concludes that, based on the combination of the above mentioned mechanisms (public consciousness patterns reformatting; the mechanism of a “symbolical victim”; metaphorization and symbolization of political space; making use of the nation-state identity crisis), the absolute plasticity and information and psychological controllability of the particular society are ensured. Such a society becomes bereft of the mechanisms of immunity to “color revolutions”; it is not ready to struggle against them and thus, it is exposed to any possible forms of an externally inspired “color” aggression. 

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