Editing Revolution

{{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}}
{{revolution sidebar}}
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.

== Etymology ==
The [[French language|French]] noun ''revolucion'' traces back to the 13th century, and the [[English language|English]] equivalent "revolution" to the late 14th century. The word was limited then to mean the revolving motion of celestial bodies. "Revolution" in the sense of abrupt change in a [[social order]] was first recorded in the mid-15th century.<ref>[[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]] vol Q-R p. 617 1979 Sense III states a usage, "Alteration, change, mutation", from 1400 but lists it as "rare". "c. 1450, Lydg 1196 ''Secrees'' of Elementys the Revoluciuons, Chaung of tymes and Complexiouns". The etymology shows the political meaning of "revolution" had been established by the early 15th century but did not come into common use until the 17th century.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=revolution |title=Revolution |website=Online Etymology Dictionary}}</ref> By 1688, the political meaning of the word was familiar enough that the replacement of [[James II of England|James II]] with [[William III of Orange|William III]] was termed the "[[Glorious Revolution]]".<ref>{{cite web|first=Richard |last=Pipes |url=http://chagala.com/russia/pipes.htm |title=A Concise History of the Russian Revolution |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511130014/http://chagala.com/russia/pipes.htm |archive-date=11 May 2011}}</ref>

== Definition ==
"Revolution" is now employed most often to denote a change in social and political institutions.<ref name="Goldstonet3">{{cite journal |last=Goldstone |first=Jack |author-link=Jack Goldstone |date=1980 |title=Theories of Revolutions: The Third Generation |journal=[[World Politics]] |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=425–453 |doi=10.2307/2010111 |jstor=2010111 |s2cid=154287826}}</ref><ref name="Forantorr">{{cite journal |last=Foran |first=John |author-link=John Foran (sociologist) |date=1993 |title=Theories of Revolution Revisited: Toward a Fourth Generation |journal=[[Sociological Theory (journal)|Sociological Theory]] |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.2307/201977 |jstor=201977}}</ref><ref name="Kroeber">{{cite journal |last=Kroeber |first=Clifton B. |date=1996 |title=Theory and History of Revolution |journal=[[Journal of World History]] |volume=7 |pages=21–40 |doi=10.1353/jwh.2005.0056 |s2cid=144148530 |number=1}}</ref> [[Jeff Goodwin]] offers two definitions. First, a broad one, including "any and all instances in which a state or a political regime is overthrown and thereby transformed by a popular movement in an irregular, extraconstitutional or violent fashion". Second, a narrow one, in which "revolutions entail not only [[mass mobilization]] and [[regime change]], but also more or less rapid and fundamental social, economic or cultural change, during or soon after the struggle for state power".{{sfn|Goodwin|2001|p=9}}

Jack Goldstone defines a revolution thusly:
<blockquote>"[Revolution is] an effort to transform the political institutions and the justifications for political authority in society, accompanied by formal or informal mass mobilization and noninstitutionalized actions that undermine authorities. This definition is broad enough to encompass events ranging from the [[Revolutions of 1989|relatively peaceful revolutions that toppled communist regimes]] to the [[War in Afghanistan (1978–present)|violent Islamic revolution in Afghanistan]]. At the same time, this definition is strong enough to exclude coups, revolts, civil wars, and rebellions that make no effort to transform institutions or the justification for authority."<ref name="Goldstonet4" /></blockquote> Goldstone's definition excludes peaceful transitions to [[democracy]] through [[plebiscite]] or [[Election#Difficulties with elections|free elections]], as occurred in [[Spain]] after the death of [[Francisco Franco]], or in [[Argentina]] and [[Chile]] after the demise of their [[military junta]]s.<ref name="Goldstonet4" /> Early scholars often debated the distinction between revolution and civil war.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Billington |first=James H. |date=1966 |title=Six Views of the Russian Revolution |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/world-politics/article/abs/six-views-of-the-russian-revolution/F41844384239517497C9A8AC94A70E4C |journal=World Politics |language=en |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=452–473 |doi=10.2307/2009765 |jstor=2009765 |s2cid=154688891 |issn=1086-3338|url-access=subscription }}</ref> They also questioned whether a revolution is purely political (i.e., concerned with the restructuring of government) or whether "it is an extensive and inclusive social change affecting all the various aspects of the life of a society, including the economic, religious, industrial, and familial as well as the political".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yoder |first=Dale |date=1926 |title=Current Definitions of Revolution |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2765544 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=433–441 |doi=10.1086/214128 |jstor=2765544 |issn=0002-9602|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Types ==
There are numerous typologies of revolution in the social science literature.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grinin |first1=Leonid |last2=Grinin |first2=Anton |last3=Korotayev |first3=Andrey |title=20th Century revolutions: characteristics, types, and waves |journal=[[Humanities and Social Sciences Communications]] |date=2022 |volume=9 |issue=124 |doi=10.1057/s41599-022-01120-9 |doi-access=free}}</ref> [[Alexis de Tocqueville]] differentiated between:
* sudden and violent revolutions that seek not only to establish a new political system but to overhaul an entire society, and; 
* slow and relentless revolutions that involve sweeping transformations of the entire society and may take several generations to bring about (such as changes in religion).<ref>{{cite book| first=Roger |last=Boesche |author-link=Roger Boesche |title=Tocqueville's Road Map: Methodology, Liberalism, Revolution, and Despotism |publisher=[[Lexington Books]] |date=2006 |isbn=0-7391-1665-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fLL6Bil2gtcC&pg=PA87 |pages=87-88}}</ref>

[[File:Europe 1848 map en.png|thumb|[[Revolutions of 1848]] were essentially [[bourgeois revolution]]s and democratic and liberal in nature, with the aim of removing the old [[Monarchy|monarchical]] structures and creating independent [[Nation state|nation-states]].]]
One of the [[Marxist]] typologies divides revolutions into: 
* pre-capitalist 
* early [[bourgeois]]
* bourgeois
* [[Bourgeois revolution|bourgeois-democratic]]
* early [[proletarian]]
* [[Revolutionary socialism|socialist]]<ref>{{cite journal|first=J. |last=Topolski |title=Rewolucje w dziejach nowożytnych i najnowszych (xvii-xx wiek) |language=pl |trans-title=Revolutions in modern and recent history (17th-20th century) |journal=Kwartalnik Historyczny |volume=LXXXIII |date=1976 |pages=251–267}}</ref>

[[Charles Tilly]], a modern scholar of revolutions, differentiated between: 
* [[coup d'état]] (a top-down seizure of power), e.g., [[May Coup (Poland)|Poland, 1926]]
* [[civil war]] 
* [[revolt]], and
* "great revolution" (a revolution that transforms economic and social structures as well as political institutions, such as the [[French Revolution]] of 1789, [[Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]] of 1917, or [[Islamic Revolution of Iran]] in 1979).<ref>{{cite book|first=Charles |last=Tilly |author-link=Charles Tilly |title=European Revolutions, 1492-1992 |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |date=1995 |isbn=0-631-19903-9 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=IJBNvCsXfnIC&pg=PA16 16]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tau.ac.il/dayancenter/mel/lewis.html |first=Bernard |last=Lewis |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070429144545/http://www.tau.ac.il/dayancenter/mel/lewis.html |archive-date=29 April 2007 |title=Iran in History |website=Moshe Dayan Center, [[Tel Aviv University]]}}</ref>

[[Mark N. Katz|Mark Katz]] identified six forms of revolution:
* rural revolution
* urban revolution
* coup d'état, e.g., [[1952 Egyptian revolution|Egypt, 1952]]
* revolution from above, e.g., [[Mao Zedong]]'s [[Great Leap Forward]] of 1958
* revolution from without, e.g., the Allied invasions of [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]] in 1943 and of [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] in 1945
* revolution by osmosis, e.g., the gradual [[Islamization]] of several countries.{{sfn|Katz|1997|p=4}}

[[File:Maquina vapor Watt ETSIIM.jpg|thumb|A [[Watt steam engine]] in [[Madrid]]. The development of the [[steam engine]] propelled the [[Industrial Revolution]] in Britain and the world. The steam engine was created to pump water from [[coal mine]]s, enabling them to be deepened beyond [[groundwater]] levels.|alt=]]
These categories are not mutually exclusive; the [[Russian Revolution of 1917]] began with an urban revolution to depose the Czar, followed by a rural revolution, followed by the [[Bolshevik]] coup in November. Katz also cross-classified revolutions as follows:
* Central: countries, usually [[Great Powers]], which play a leading role in a [[revolutionary wave]]; e.g., the [[USSR]], [[Nazi Germany]], [[Iran]] since 1979{{sfn|Katz|1997|p=13}}
* Aspiring revolutions, which follow the Central revolution
* subordinate or puppet revolutions
* rival revolutions, in which a former alliance is broken, such as [[Tito-Stalin split|Yugoslavia after 1948]], and [[Sino-Soviet split|China after 1960]].

A further dimension to Katz's typology is that revolutions are either against (anti-monarchy, anti-dictatorial, anti-communist, anti-democratic) or for (pro-fascism, pro-communism, pro-nationalism, etc.). In the latter cases, a transition period is generally necessary to decide which direction to take to achieve the desired form of government.{{sfn|Katz|1997|p=12}} Other types of revolution, created for other typologies, include [[proletarian revolution|proletarian]] or [[communist revolutions]] (inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aim to replace [[capitalism]] with [[communism]]); failed or abortive revolutions (that are not able to secure power after winning temporary victories or amassing large-scale mobilizations); or violent vs. [[nonviolent revolution]]s. The term ''revolution'' has also been used to denote great changes outside the political sphere. Such revolutions, often labeled [[social revolution]]s, are recognized as major transformations in a society's culture, philosophy, or technology, rather than in its [[political system]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Irving E. |last=Fang |title=A History of Mass Communication: Six Information Revolutions |publisher=[[Focal Press]] |date=1997 |isbn=0-240-80254-3 |pages=xv}}</ref> Some social revolutions are global in scope, while others are limited to single countries. Commonly cited examples of social revolution are the [[Industrial Revolution]], [[Scientific Revolution]], [[Commercial Revolution]], and [[Digital Revolution]]. These revolutions also fit the "slow revolution" type identified by Tocqueville.<ref>{{cite book|last=Murray |first=Warwick E. |author-link=Warwick Murray |title=Geographies of Globalization |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2006 |isbn=0-415-31800-9 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=L-3Vq3aadTYC&pg=PA226 226]}}</ref>

== Studies of revolution ==
[[File: Revolution - 2014.jpg |thumb|R E V O L U T I O N, [[graffiti]] with [[political]] message on a house wall. Four letters have been written backwards and with a different color so that they also form the word [[Love]].]]{{Main|Social revolution}}

[[File:Prise de la Bastille.jpg|left|thumb|The [[storming of the Bastille]], 14 July 1789 during the [[French Revolution]].]]
[[File:Gilbert Stuart Williamstown Portrait of George Washington (cropped)(2).jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[George Washington]], leader of the [[American Revolution]].]]
[[File:Lenin.WWI.JPG|thumb|upright|right|[[Vladimir Lenin]], leader of the [[Bolshevik Revolution of 1917]].]]
[[File:Sunyatsen1.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Sun Yat-sen]], leader of the Chinese [[Xinhai Revolution]] in 1911.]]
[[File:การปฏิวัติสยาม พ.ศ. 2475 การเปลี่ยนแปลงการปกครองของประเทศไทย 01.jpg|thumb|[[Khana Ratsadon]], a group of military officers and civil officials, who staged the [[Siamese Revolution of 1932]]]]

Political and socioeconomic revolutions have been studied in many [[social sciences]], particularly [[sociology]], [[political science]] and [[history]].<ref name="NOWO:5">{{cite book|first=Jeff |last=Goodwin |author-link=Jeff Goodwin |title=No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1991 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2001 |pages=5}}</ref> Scholars of revolution differentiate four generations of theoretical research on the subject of revolution.<ref name="Goldstonet4" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beck |first=Colin J. |date=2018 |title=The Structure of Comparison in the Study of Revolution |url=https://osf.io/x8bf7/download |journal=Sociological Theory |language=en-US |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=134–161 |doi=10.1177/0735275118777004 |issn=0735-2751 |s2cid=53669466|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Theorists of the first generation, including [[Gustave Le Bon]], [[Charles A. Ellwood]], and [[Pitirim Sorokin]], were mainly descriptive in their approach, and their explanations of the phenomena of revolutions were usually related to [[social psychology]], such as Le Bon's [[crowd psychology]] theory.<ref name="Goldstonet3" /> The second generation sought to develop detailed frameworks, grounded in [[social behavior]] theory, to explain why and when revolutions arise. Their work can be divided into three categories: psychological, sociological and political.<ref name="Goldstonet3" />

The writings of [[Ted Robert Gurr]], Ivo K. Feierbrand, Rosalind L. Feierbrand, James A. Geschwender, [[David C. Schwartz]], and Denton E. Morrison fall into the first category. They utilized theories of [[cognitive psychology]] and [[frustration-aggression theory]] to link the cause of revolution to the state of mind of the masses. While these theorists varied in their approach as to what exactly incited the people to revolt (e.g., modernization, recession, or discrimination), they agreed that the primary cause for revolution was a widespread frustration with the socio-political situation.<ref name="Goldstonet3"/>

The second group, composed of academics such as [[Chalmers Johnson]], [[Neil Smelser]], [[Bob Jessop]], [[Mark Hart]], Edward A. Tiryakian, and Mark Hagopian, drew on the work of [[Talcott Parsons]] and the [[structural-functionalist]] theory in sociology. They saw society as a system in equilibrium between various resources, demands, and subsystems (political, cultural, etc.). As in the psychological school, they differed in their definitions of what causes disequilibrium, but agreed that it is a state of severe disequilibrium that is responsible for revolutions.<ref name="Goldstonet3"/>

The third group, including writers such as [[Charles Tilly]], [[Samuel P. Huntington]], [[Peter Ammann]], and [[Arthur L. Stinchcombe]], followed a [[political science]] path and looked at [[pluralist theory]] and [[Conflict theories|interest group conflict theory]]. Those theories view events as outcomes of a [[power struggle]] between competing [[advocacy group|interest groups]]. In such a model, revolutions happen when two or more groups cannot come to terms within the current [[political system]]'s normal [[decision-making]] process, and when they possess the required resources to employ force in pursuit of their goals.<ref name="Goldstonet3"/>

The second-generation theorists regarded the development of revolutionary situations as a two-step process: "First, a pattern of events arises that somehow marks a break or change from previous patterns. This change then affects some critical variable—the cognitive state of the masses, the equilibrium of the system, or the magnitude of conflict and resource control of competing interest groups. If the effect on the critical variable is of sufficient magnitude, a potentially revolutionary situation occurs."<ref name="Goldstonet3"/> Once this point is reached, a negative incident (a war, a riot, a bad harvest) that in the past might not have been enough to trigger a revolt, will now be enough. However, if authorities are cognizant of the danger, they can still prevent revolution through reform or repression.<ref name="Goldstonet3"/>

In his influential 1938 book ''[[The Anatomy of Revolution]]'', historian [[Crane Brinton]] established a convention by choosing four major political revolutions—[[English Civil War|England (1642)]], [[American Revolution|Thirteen Colonies of America (1775)]], [[French Revolution|France (1789)]], and [[Russian Revolution|Russia (1917)]]—for comparative study.<ref>{{cite book |first=Crane |last=Brinton |author-link=Crane Brinton |title=[[The Anatomy of Revolution]] |edition=revised |location=New York |publisher=Vintage Books |date=1965 |orig-date=1938}}</ref> He outlined what he called their "uniformities", although the [[American Revolution]] deviated somewhat from the pattern.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Armstrong |first1=Stephen |last2=Desrosiers |first2=Marian |title=Helping Students Analyze Revolutions |journal=Social Education |volume=76 |issue=1 |url=https://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/articles/se_760138.pdf |date=January 2012 |pages=38–46}}</ref> As a result, most later comparative studies of revolution substituted [[Chinese Communist Revolution|China (1949)]] in their lists, but they continued Brinton's practice of focusing on four.<ref name="Goldstonet4"/>

In subsequent decades, scholars began to classify hundreds of other events as revolutions (see [[List of revolutions and rebellions]]). Their expanded notion of revolution engendered new approaches and explanations. The theories of the second generation came under criticism for being too limited in geographical scope, and for lacking a means of empirical verification. Also, while second-generation theories may have been capable of explaining a specific revolution, they could not adequately explain why revolutions failed to occur in other societies experiencing very similar circumstances.<ref name="Goldstonet4"/>

The criticism of the second generation led to the rise of a third generation of theories, put forth by writers such as [[Theda Skocpol]], [[Barrington Moore]], Jeffrey Paige, and others expanding on the old [[Marxism|Marxist]] [[class conflict|class-conflict]] approach. They turned their attention to "rural agrarian-state conflicts, state conflicts with autonomous elites, and the impact of interstate economic and military competition on domestic political change."<ref name="Goldstonet4"/> In particular, Skocpol's ''[[States and Social Revolutions]]'' (1979) was a landmark book of the third generation. Skocpol defined revolution as "rapid, basic transformations of society's state and class structures ... accompanied and in part carried through by class-based revolts from below", and she attributed revolutions to "a conjunction of multiple conflicts involving state, elites and the lower classes".<ref name="Skocpol_ssr"/>

[[File:West and East Germans at the Brandenburg Gate in 1989.jpg|thumb|left|The fall of the [[Berlin Wall]] and most of the events of the [[Autumn of Nations]] in Europe, 1989, were sudden and peaceful.]]
In the late 1980s, a new body of academic work started questioning the dominance of the third generation's theories. The old theories were also dealt a significant blow by a series of revolutionary events that they could not readily explain. The [[Iranian Revolution|Iranian]] and [[Nicaraguan Revolution]]s of 1979, the 1986 [[People Power Revolution]] in the [[Philippines]], and the 1989 [[Autumn of Nations]] in Europe, Asia and Africa saw diverse opposition movements topple seemingly powerful regimes amidst popular demonstrations and [[General strike|mass strikes]] in [[nonviolent revolution]]s.<ref name="Forantorr"/><ref name="Goldstonet4"/>

For some historians, the traditional paradigm of revolutions as [[class struggle]]-driven conflicts centered in Europe, and involving a violent state versus its discontented people, was no longer sufficient to account for the multi-class coalitions toppling dictators around the world. Consequently, the study of revolutions began to evolve in three directions. As Goldstone describes it, scholars of revolution:
#Extended the third generation's structural theories to a more heterogeneous set of cases, "well beyond the small number of 'great' social revolutions".<ref name="Goldstonet4"/>
#Called for greater attention to conscious [[Agency (philosophy)|agency]] and contingency in understanding the course and outcome of revolutions.
#Observed how studies of social movements—for women's rights, labor rights, and U.S. civil rights—had much in common with studies of revolution and could enrich the latter. Thus, "a new literature on 'contentious politics' has developed that attempts to combine insights from the literature on social movements and revolutions to better understand both phenomena."<ref name="Goldstonet4"/>

The fourth generation increasingly turned to quantitative techniques when formulating its theories. Political science research moved beyond individual or comparative case studies towards large-N statistical analysis assessing the causes and implications of revolution.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Leroi |first1=Armand M. |last2=Lambert |first2=Ben |last3=Mauch |first3=Matthias |last4=Papadopoulou |first4=Marina |last5=Ananiadou |first5=Sophia |last6=Lindberg |first6=Staffan I. |last7=Lindenfors |first7=Patrik |title=On revolutions |journal=[[Palgrave Communications]] |date=2020 |volume=6 |issue=4 |doi=10.1057/s41599-019-0371-1 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The initial fourth-generation books and journal articles generally relied on the [[Polity data series]] on [[democratization]].<ref>{{cite web|title=PolityProject |url=https://www.systemicpeace.org/polityproject.html |website=Center for Systemic Peace |access-date =17 February 2016}}</ref> Such analyses, like those by A. J. Enterline,<ref>{{cite journal|title=Regime Changes, Neighborhoods, and Interstate Conflict, 1816-1992 |journal=[[Journal of Conflict Resolution]] |date=1 December 1998 |issn=0022-0027 |pages=804–829 |volume=42 |issue=6 |doi=10.1177/0022002798042006006 |language=en |first=A. J. |last=Enterline |s2cid=154877512}}</ref> [[Zeev Maoz]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Domestic sources of global change |last=Maoz |first=Zeev |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |year=1996 |location=Ann Arbor, MI}}</ref> and Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder,<ref>{{cite book|title=Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies go to War |last1=Mansfield |first1=Edward D. |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |year=2007 |last2=Snyder |first2=Jack}}</ref> identified a revolution by a significant change in the country's score on Polity's autocracy-to-democracy scale.

Since the 2010s, scholars like Jeff Colgan have argued that the Polity data series—which evaluates the degree of democratic or autocratic authority in a state's governing institutions based on the openness of executive recruitment, constraints on executive authority, and political competition—is inadequate because it measures democratization, not revolution, and doesn't account for regimes which come to power by revolution but fail to change the structure of the state and society sufficiently to yield a notable difference in the Polity score.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Measuring Revolution |journal=Conflict Management and Peace Science |date=1 September 2012 |issn=0738-8942 |pages=444–467 |volume=29 |issue=4 |doi=10.1177/0738894212449093 |language=en |first=Jeff |last=Colgan |s2cid=220675692}}</ref> Instead, Colgan offered a new data set to single out governments that "transform the existing social, political, and economic relationships of the state by overthrowing or rejecting the principal existing institutions of society."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Data - Jeff D Colgan |url=https://sites.google.com/site/jeffdcolgan/data |website=sites.google.com |access-date=17 February 2016}}</ref> This data set has been employed to make empirically based contributions to the literature on revolution by finding links between revolution and the likelihood of international disputes.

Revolutions have been further examined from an anthropological perspective. Drawing on Victor Turner's writings on ritual and performance, [[Bjorn Thomassen]] suggested that revolutions can be understood as "liminal" moments: modern political revolutions very much resemble rituals and can therefore be studied within a process approach.<ref name="Thomassen">{{cite journal|last=Thomassen |first=Bjorn |author-link=Bjorn Thomassen |title=Toward an anthropology of political revolutions |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |year=2012 |volume=54 |issue=3 |pages=679–706 |doi=10.1017/s0010417512000278 |s2cid=15806418 |url=https://rucforsk.ruc.dk/ws/files/38613537/Notes_towards_an_Anthropology_of_Political_Revolutions.pdf}}</ref> This would imply not only a focus on political behavior "from below", but also a recognition of moments where "high and low" are relativized, subverted, or made irrelevant, and where the micro and macro levels fuse together in critical conjunctions. Economist [[Douglass North]] raised a note of caution about revolutionary change, how it "is never as revolutionary as its rhetoric would have us believe".<ref name="North_book">{{cite book |last1=North |first1=Douglass C. |title=Transaction Costs, Institutions, and Economic Performance |url=https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pnabm255.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201055849/http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABM255.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 February 2016|date=1992 |publisher=ICS Press |location=San Francisco |page=13 |isbn=978-1-558-15211-3 |via=U.S. Agency for International Development}}</ref> While the "formal rules" of laws and constitutions can be changed virtually overnight, the "informal constraints" such as institutional inertia and cultural inheritance do not change quickly and thereby slow down the societal transformation. According to North, the tension between formal rules and informal constraints is "typically resolved by some restructuring of the overall constraints—in both directions—to produce a new equilibrium that is far less revolutionary than the rhetoric."<ref name="North_book" />

== See also ==
{{cols|colwidth=26em}}
* [[Age of Revolution]]
* [[Classless society]]
* [[Counterrevolution]]
* [[List of revolutions and rebellions]]
* [[Passive revolution]]
* [[Political warfare]]
* [[Preference falsification]]
* [[Psychological warfare]]
* [[Rebellion]]
* [[Reformism]]
* [[Revolutionary wave]]
* [[Right of revolution]]
* [[Social movement]]
* [[Subversion]]
* [[User revolt]]
{{colend}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
* {{Cite book |last=Fukuyama |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Fukuyama |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=azRfjououTAC |title=The End of History and the Last Man |date=1992 |publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]] |isbn=978-0-140-13455-1 |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Getachew |first=Adom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J3OYDwAAQBAJ |title=Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination |date=2019 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-17915-5 |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gunitsky |first=Seva |date=2017 |url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691172330/aftershocks |title=Aftershocks |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-17233-0}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Gunitsky |first=Seva |date=2018 |title=Democratic Waves in Historical Perspective |journal=[[Perspectives on Politics]] |language=en |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=634–651 |doi=10.1017/S1537592718001044 |issn=1537-5927 |s2cid=149523316}}
* {{Citation |last=Gunitsky |first=Seva |date=2021 |title=Great Powers and the Spread of Autocracy Since the Cold War |work=Before and After the Fall: World Politics and the End of the Cold War |pages=225–243 |editor-last=Bartel |editor-first=Fritz |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/before-and-after-the-fall/great-powers-and-the-spread-of-autocracy-since-the-cold-war/D7F3EC6F0C4B41F5742693AB13DE28AD |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |doi=10.1017/9781108910194.014 |isbn=978-1-108-84334-8 |s2cid=244851964 |editor2-last=Monteiro |editor2-first=Nuno P.|url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book |last=Katz |first=Mark N. |author-link=Mark N. Katz |title=Revolutions and Revolutionary Waves |publisher=[[St Martin's Press]] |date=1997 |isbn=978-0-312-17322-7}}
* [[Peter Kropotkin]] (1906), ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73882 Memoirs of a Revolutionist]''. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Ltd.
* {{Cite book |last=Reus-Smit |first=Christian |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/individual-rights-and-the-making-of-the-international-system/A915E13F20DDBD0F5FEE91A59D7C827A |title=Individual Rights and the Making of the International System |date=2013 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-85777-2 |doi=10.1017/cbo9781139046527}}

== Further reading ==
* Beissinger, Mark R. 2022. ''The Revolutionary City: Urbanization and the Global Transformation of Rebellion''. Princeton University Press
* Beissinger, Mark R. (2024). "[https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/920225/pdf The Evolving Study of Revolution]". ''World Politics.''
* {{cite journal|last=Beck |first=Colin J. |date=2018 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0735275118777004?journalCode=stxa |title=The Structure of Comparison in the Study of Revolution |journal=Sociological Theory |volume=36 |number=2 |pages=134–161|doi=10.1177/0735275118777004 |s2cid=53669466 |url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book |last1=Edelstein |first1=Dan |title=The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin |date=2025 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691231853}}
* Goldstone, Jack A. (1982). "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2945993 The Comparative and Historical Study of Revolutions]". ''Annual Review of Sociology''. '''8''': 187–207
* {{cite book|editor-last=Ness |editor-first=Immanuel |title=The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present |location=Malden, MA |publisher=[[Wiley & Sons]] |date=2009 |isbn=978-1-405-18464-9}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Strang |first=David |date=1991 |title=Global Patterns of Decolonization, 1500-1987 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2600949 |journal=International Studies Quarterly |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=429–454 |doi=10.2307/2600949 |jstor=2600949 |issn=0020-8833|url-access=subscription }}

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|Revolution}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [[Hannah Arendt|Arendt, Hannah]] (1963). [http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/arendt.htm#H5 IEP.UTM.edu]. ''On Revolution''. Penguin Classics. New Ed edition: February 8, 1991. {{ISBN|0-14-018421-X}}.

{{Political philosophy}}
{{Anarchism}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Comparative politics]]
[[Category:Revolution| ]]
[[Category:Revolutions| ]]
[[Category:Social concepts]]
[[Category:Social conflict]]