Abstract: The article includes polemics with the books by Leonid Ionin «Political correctness: brave new world» (2012). L. Ionin has made an attempt of transfer from the empirical and historic description to defining a phenomenon, and from the examples of political correctness to analysis and explanation of its nature. The author defines political correctness as follows: «… it is an ideology of the modern mass democracy, which serves, on one hand, as a substantiation for the domestic and foreign policy of Western states and their unions, and on the other hand, it is used for the suppression of the nonconformity and guaranteeing ideological and value-related consensus». Having analyzed the definition of political correctness and its substantiation, the author of the article points out its contradictions and limitations. The author describes a complicated mechanism of appearance and use of political correctness, taking the Girondist clubs and their role in the French Revolution as an example. The author provides examples of modern criticism and opposition to the political correctness in the mass democracy societies. Then the author offers a novel understanding of the phenomenon of political correctness, its stages and elements within the context of social protest movements.

Keywords: liberal consensus, protest movement, minorities, Leonid Ionin, public opinion, mass democracy, political correctness, political science, Augustin Cochin, ideology.