Revolution: Key Concepts and Historical Overview

Definition and Core Elements

• Revolution: A rapid, fundamental transformation of a society’s class, state, ethnic, or religious structures.
  • Latin origin: revolutio, meaning 'a turnaround'.
• Common elements:
  • Efforts to change political regimes with a vision of a just socio-economic order.
  • Informal and formal mass mobilization.
  • Socio-economic and political change through actions like demonstrations, protests, strikes, and violence.

Historical Occurrences

• Revolutions vary in methods, durations, and outcomes.
• Can start from peasant uprisings, guerrilla warfare, or urban insurrection.
• Inspired by ideologies such as nationalism, republicanism, socialism, etc.
• Vulnerability factors:
  • Military defeat, economic chaos, national pride affronts, repression, corruption.
• Typically trigger counter-revolutions.

Notable Revolutions

• American Revolution (1765-1783)
• French Revolution (1789-1799)
• Haitian Revolution (1791-1804)
• Spanish American wars of independence (1808-1826)
• Revolutions of 1848
• Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)
• Xinhai Revolution (1911)
• Russian Revolution and German Revolution (1917-1919)
• Chinese Communist Revolution (1927-1949)
• Decolonization of Africa (1950s-1975)
• Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962)
• Cuban Revolution (1959)
• Iranian Revolution and Nicaraguan Revolution (1979)
• Revolutions of 1989
• Arab Spring (early 2010s)

Etymology and Evolution of the Term

• 13th-century French noun revolucion, 14th-century English 'revolution': celestial bodies' motion.
• Mid-15th century: abrupt social change.
• 1688: "Glorious Revolution" - political regime change.
• Now often denotes social and political institution changes.

Definitions by Scholars

• Jeff Goodwin:
  • Broad: Overthrow and transformation by irregular or violent popular movements.
  • Narrow: Includes mass mobilization, regime change, and fundamental social/economic/cultural change.
• Jack Goldstone:
  • Emphasizes transformation of political institutions and authority.
  • Excludes peaceful transitions or coups not transforming institutions.

Typologies of Revolution

• Alexis de Tocqueville: Sudden and violent vs. slow and relentless revolutions.
• Marxist Typology: Pre-capitalist, early bourgeois, proletarian, and socialist revolutions.
• Charles Tilly: Coup d'état, civil war, revolt, great revolution.
• Mark Katz: Six forms, including rural, urban, coups, revolutions from above, etc.

Social Revolution Examples

• Industrial Revolution: Technological transformation.
• Scientific Revolution: Advances in knowledge.
• Commercial Revolution: Economic changes.
• Digital Revolution: Digital transformation.

Studies and Theoretical Approaches

• First Generation: Descriptive, social psychology focus (e.g., crowd psychology).
• Second Generation: Frameworks based on psychology, sociology, political theories.
• Third Generation: Marxist class-conflict approach; state, elite, lower-class conflicts.
• Fourth Generation: Quantitative techniques, broader structural theories, contentious politics.

Contemporary Critiques and Developments

• Recognition of diverse revolutionary forms beyond class struggles.
• Integration with studies of social movements for enriched understanding.
• Development of new datasets for empirical analysis.

Cultural and Institutional Considerations

• Revolutions as "liminal" moments, akin to rituals.
• Douglass North's caution on revolutionary rhetoric vs. real institutional change.

Additional Insights

• Revolutions can also denote significant changes outside politics, e.g., cultural or technological transformations.