Strategic Traditionalism: a Theory of Selective Moral Governance

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Abstract

How do nationalist political actors selectively mobilize gender and sexuality to reinforce state power?

Why do some moral issues become central to nationalist projects while others remain politically stable? This paper examines how the Russian state strategically deploys “traditional values” to consolidate domestic authority and reposition itself in global ideological struggles. I introduce the concept of strategic traditionalism to describe a form of statecraft in which appeals to tradition are not expressions of fixed cultural commitments but politically calibrated tools. To identify state interests, I analyze news coverage of homosexuality and abortion before and after the unexpected 2013 state takeover of Russia’s most widely read news agency. Drawing on the logic of a natural experiment, I conduct qualitative media analysis to trace how direct state intervention reshaped moral discourse, accompanied by measurable shifts in framing patterns.

Prior to the takeover, both homosexuality and abortion were framed through a conventional opposition between traditional values and human rights. After the takeover, coverage of homosexuality shifted dramatically. The issue was reframed from a moral dispute into a question of national sovereignty: Russia was positioned as defending “ordinary people” against Western elites allegedly imposing “LGBT ideology” as a mechanism of cultural domination. In contrast, abortion discourse remained structurally unchanged, continuing to be framed as a conflict between traditionalist and women’s choice positions. Importantly, abortion policy remained stable, while the state intensified repression of LGBTQ organizations.

The divergence between these domains demonstrates that nationalist moral politics is not a generalized cultural backlash. Rather, it reflects selective issue activation aligned with state interests. By showing how sexuality became geopolitically weaponized while abortion remained politically contained, this paper contributes to political sociology debates on nationalism, moral regulation, and the strategic construction of public culture. It argues that contemporary anti-liberal campaigns around sexuality are best understood as deliberate projects of state power.

Author

• Asya Tsaturyan, Columbia University