Editing Revolution (section)

{{short description|Rapid and fundamental political change}}
{{redirect|Political revolution|Trotskyist concept|Political revolution (Trotskyism)|other uses|Revolution (disambiguation)|and|Revolutions (disambiguation)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
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In [[political science]], a '''revolution''' ({{langx|la|revolutio}}, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures.<ref name="Skocpol_ssr">{{Cite book |last=Skocpol |first=Theda |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/states-and-social-revolutions/9481262B2BDA1BFFB3C9218DBD447190 |title=States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China |date=1979 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511815805|isbn=978-0-521-22439-0 }}</ref> According to [[sociologist]] [[Jack Goldstone]], all revolutions contain "a common set of elements at their core: (a) efforts to change the political [[regime]] that draw on a competing vision (or visions) of a just order, (b) a notable degree of informal or formal [[mass mobilization]], and (c) efforts to force change through noninstitutionalized actions such as [[Political demonstration|mass demonstrations]], [[Protest|protests]], strikes, or [[violence]]."<ref name="Goldstonet4">{{cite journal |last=Goldstone |first=Jack |author-link=Jack Goldstone |date=2001 |title=Towards a Fourth Generation of Revolutionary Theory |journal=[[Annual Review of Political Science]] |volume=4 |pages=139–187 |doi=10.1146/annurev.polisci.4.1.139 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Revolutions have occurred throughout human history and varied in their methods, durations and outcomes.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Stone |first=Lawrence |date=1966 |title=Theories of Revolution |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/world-politics/article/abs/theories-of-revolution/66CDA67FF55E08E0620257F0FDE14876 |journal=World Politics |language=en |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=159–176 |doi=10.2307/2009694 |jstor=2009694 |s2cid=154757362 |issn=1086-3338|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Some revolutions started with [[List_of_peasant_revolts|peasant uprisings]] or [[guerrilla warfare]] on the periphery of a country; others started with urban insurrection aimed at seizing the country's capital city.<ref name="Goldstonet4"/> Revolutions can be inspired by the rising popularity of certain political [[Ideology|ideologies]], moral principles, or models of governance such as [[nationalism]], [[republicanism]], [[egalitarianism]], [[self-determination]], [[human rights]], [[democracy]], [[liberalism]], [[fascism]], or [[socialism]].<ref>{{harvnb|Gunitsky|2018}}; {{harvnb|Gunitsky|2017}}; {{harvnb|Gunitsky|2021}}; {{harvnb|Reus-Smit|2013}}; {{harvnb|Fukuyama|1992}}; {{harvnb|Getachew|2019}}</ref> A regime may become vulnerable to revolution due to a recent military defeat, or economic chaos, or an affront to national pride and identity, or persistent  repression and [[corruption]].<ref name="Goldstonet4" /> Revolutions typically trigger [[counter-revolutions]] which seek to halt revolutionary momentum, or to reverse the course of an ongoing revolutionary transformation.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Clarke |first=Killian |date=2023 |title=Revolutionary Violence and Counterrevolution |journal=American Political Science Review |volume=117 |issue=4 |pages=1344–1360 |doi=10.1017/S0003055422001174 |issn=0003-0554 |s2cid=254907991 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Notable revolutions in recent centuries include the [[American Revolution]] (1765–1783), [[French Revolution]] (1789–1799), [[Haitian Revolution]] (1791–1804), [[Spanish American wars of independence]] (1808–1826), [[Revolutions of 1848]] in Europe, [[Mexican Revolution]] (1910–1920), [[Xinhai Revolution]] in China in 1911, [[Revolutions of 1917–1923]] in Europe (including the [[Russian Revolution]] and [[German revolution of 1918–1919|German Revolution]]), [[Chinese Communist Revolution]] (1927–1949), [[decolonization of Africa]] (mid-1950s to 1975), [[Algerian War of Independence]] (1954-1962), [[Cuban Revolution]] in 1959, [[Iranian Revolution]] and [[Nicaraguan Revolution]] in 1979, worldwide [[Revolutions of 1989]], and [[Arab Spring]] in the early 2010s.