| Abstract: | Political symbologists generally concur that the use of symbols by regimes and citizens often leads to favorable outcomes for the manipulators. However, the various impacts of the different politcal contents, or “messages,” within the symbolic containers, or “media,” have gone unstudied. Thus, a major theoretical question arises: Do all messages of political symbols have similar political outcomes? The present investigation examines the impact of the various political contents of symbols manipulated by protest groups during demonstrations in the U.S.S.R. The findings suggest that the higher the politicality of the symbolic content, the fewer the concessions and the greater the repressions meted out to demonstrators by Soviet regime officials. Thus, although a deprived citizen group can obtain favorable regime policies through the political use of symbols, it might benefit most by depoliticizing their content. |
