정치신뢰와 풀뿌리유권자운동

Political Trust and Grassroot Movement: Case of Tea-party Movement in the US Party Politics

Many works in the field of social movement have claimed that grassroot movements, usually arising out of political distrust, can be influential when coinciding with the preference of electorate. This article is an attempt to apply the claim to the case of "Tea-party Movement" in the US. It has been found that the Tea-party Movement in 2010 midterm election could be powerful in accordance with policy preference of general public. However, as the Movement became extremely conservative since 2010 and, as a result, its policy orientations are far distant from that of general public, it lost its political influence in 2012 US Presidential election. These findings imply that any grassroot movement, in order to maintain its influence, needs to keep accordance with the policy orientation of general public.