Authors: Kuper & Kuper
Summary: The entry defines the term and explores the major scholarly approaches to the problem of revolution, including considerations of its causes, outcomes, and ideology. A revolution is any political crisis propelled by illegal actions by subordinate groups which threatens to change the political institutions or social structure of a society. Many of the key issues of revolution were set out in the nineteenth century by Marx and Engels. Marx viewed Europe's history since the Middle Ages as a progression through a series of modes of production. Since no mode of production, and the social classes associated with it, give way peacefully, in Marx's view revolution is a necessary form of historical change.
In the twentieth century, revolution as an academic topic has attracted close attention from the 1960s onwards. Initial efforts to explain the causes of revolution focused on changes in people's expectations and attitudes. Subsequently, scholars shifted to an emphasis on institutions and state resources. Tilly, for instance, found that strikes and riots did not tend to occur during times of deprivation, such as periods of falling real wages or falls in economic output. Instead, he showed that revolutions occur when difficulties (such as wars and fiscal crises) occur in states with weakened or vulnerable institutions.
The outcomes of revolutions are diverse. They depend not only on those factors that caused the revolution, but also on the vagaries of the revolutionary process, the influence wielded by external countries, and the problems faced and resources held by the eventual victors in the revolutionary struggle.
Finally, the role of ideology in revolution has always been highly debated. According to Eisenstadt the main role of ideologies in revolutions has been to bring together diverse grievances and interests under a simple and appealing set of symbols of opposition.