INTERNAL POLITICAL STRUGGLE IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES DURING THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN IN 2016

The author of the article focuses on the figure of Bernie Sanders as the main alternative to Hilary Clinton in the Democratic Party for the nomination of the US president. Hilary Clinton is a systemic candidate representing the right wing of the party, while Bernie Sanders was the left-wing candidate, speaking on behalf of the American "anti-establishment". The article is aimed at observing Bernie Sanders' position, role and potential in the internal political struggle within the party and in the American social and political life in general. Being an insignificant player in American politics, Sanders managed to gain popularity in the broad strata of American society, which allowed him to be a mutually acceptable candidate protesting against traditional political elites and the neoliberal course. The article is intended to solve a number of tasks: to determine Sanders' position in the American political system and his role as an out-of-system democratic candidate; to reveal the reasons for his loss to the systemic candidate in the person of Clinton at the primaries stage and his prospective features, which allowed him to reach the final of the pre-election race. Adhering to the left-conservative views and the idea of returning to a social state, Sanders faced the Democratic Party management, the legislative and executive power system, the largest American media. Alongside with this, the main support for him was the midprovincial layer in American society, the progressive youth and the social movements they created. Expressing the protest moods of the left wing, Sanders did not have a clearly expressed function of the leader, which allows talking about the prospect of further action on the part of his most ideologically left electoral base already in the context new management's arrival in the White House.