“Social Justice” in the Official Discourse in Belarus: (Post-)Soviet Concept with a Lot of Meanings

Abstract

by Tatsiana Chulitskaya

The hypothesis of the article is that in spite of the declared “socialist” grounds, the official discourse of social justice in Belarus eventually underwent substantial changes, drifting away from the declared roots in Soviet practices
and being filled with new ideological values instead. These changes are based on the political conditions and, in particular, on the change of modality of relations with Russia as the main sponsor of the Belarusian regime as well as on the symbolic development of so-called pro-European vector of Belarusian foreign policy. The domestic context of the changes is the deteriorating socio-economic situation.
The main research method is qualitative discourse analysis. Public statements of President Lukashenko within two political cycles (2006–2010, 2010–2015) have been used for the reconstruction of the official discourse of social justice in Belarus. Special attention has been paid to the analysis of the statements made during electoral campaigns.
The article consists of three parts. The first discusses the concept of “post-socialist condition” as the context of production of social justice discourse in the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and in Belarus. The second shows the specifics of the ideological articulation of public policy grounds in a nondemocratic regime. The third analyzes the Belarusian President’s statements relating to the concept of social justice in the period of three election campaigns (2006, 2010 and 2015.). The conclusion presents the findings concerning the characteristics of the production and maintenance of the official discourse of social justice in Belarus.