NEW TRENDS IN THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT AT THE END OF THE 20th CENTURY: DISCUSSION ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES

The novelty of this research lies in its primary task: to study the adaptation process of American conservatism to a rapidly changing world. The article attempts to trace the formation process of a conservative socio-political strategy in the 1990s, through the analysis of 1) factors that influenced the strengthening of the consolidation of the conservative movement in the early 1990s, 2) the reaction of the Right to the implementation of the "Contract with America" in 1994, and 3) discussions that was unfolded between the leaders of the conservative movement during the election campaigns of 1992, 1996 and 2000. The analyzed material allows to conclude that 1990s became a period when a new kind of conservative model of social policy is taking shape as a real alternative to the social-liberal model. The new tendencies manifested in the conservative movement were incorporated into the conservative version of the “welfare state”. The scientific novelty of this work is also in the investigation of the social policy of conservatives alongside with the evolution of the conservative movement.