social revolution.
Watch this YouTube documentary and write 4 pages following these 4 steps:
1) a detailed description of the movie/documentary film
2) fully detailed analysis and interpretation of the movie/documentary film (how accurate is the documentary film in depicting the subject according to the readings? Is the story told complete? Is the story convincing?)
3) evaluation of the documentary film (what messages did the movie/documentary film convey? How
was the message conveyed? How well are major parts connected to each other?
4) relating the movie/documentary film to these writings below:
Explaining Revolutions
State refers to “core administrative, policing and military organizations…coordinated by an executive authority that extract resources from and administer and rule… a territorial defined national society.
Regime refers to “the formal and informal organizations, relationships, and rules that determine who can employ state power for what ends as well as how those who are in power deal with those who are not
Bureaucratic State
Bureaucracy is staffed by merit-based appointments
Systematic enforcement of rules and regulations
Efficiency in service provision
Patrimonial State
Appointments are based on political loyalty, kinship, ethnicity
Ineffective and random enforcement of rules and regulations
Inefficiency in service provision
Inclusive/Liberal Regime
Popular participation in political process – election, political parties, civil society groups
Presence of civil and political liberties
Exclusive/Repressive Regime
Shutting-off possibility for political participation
Absence of civil and political liberties
Many factors influence revolution. Many analysts focus on one or two factors in explaining the occurrence of a revolution
Combination of regime type, type of state organization and state infrastructural power creates catalyst for probable revolution
State with exclusive political regime and patrimonial type of government institution and weak state infrastructural power is likely to experience revolution
No popular representation
Weak state capacity, limited resources, lack of enforcement of rule = social justice, inequality
Pushing and pulling factors
State with bureaucratic organization, inclusive political regime, and strong infrastructural power is less likely to experience revolution
Strong organizational capacity and resources result in better service delivery
Political representation means presence of social justice, equality
Formal mechanism for transfer of power
Socio-economic class is a second structure that could lead to revolution
Social classes “are clusters of people…who act together or against each other in the pursuit of particular interests”
Eric Wolf: peasant revolution followed the emergence of commercialization of agriculture and new social classes – intellectuals and workers
Absentee landlords engaged in excessive expropriation from farmers
Intellectuals – doctors, lawyers – see their social mobilization restricted
Workers are alienated from their labor
Modernization is a movement from traditional society to modern society
Imbalance between popular demands and a political system’s capacity to respond to these demands
Such imbalance generates alienation of farmers and middle class
Revolution depends on the extent of such alienation
International Flow of Ideas
Revolutionary leaders learned the concept of revolution and its potential in national development
Many revolutionary leaders saw the ability of communist revolution in economic development and industrialization
International Flow of Financial and Logistical Support
Revolutions during the Cold War supported by the Soviet Union
What is Inwegen’s conclusion about the causes of revolution?
He opts for a cluster of analysis that includes state, class, and international structures. This cluster creates necessary and sufficient conditions for successful revolution
Weak state: exclusive, patrimonial, and repressive
Class structure: parasitic and remote landed elites and alienated middle class
International system that is conducive to revolutionary movements – ideology and finance
How does Skocpol (in her “historical structural perspective”) define social revolutions?
“Rapid basic transformation of a society’s state and class structures; and they are accompanied and in part carried out through by class-based revolts from below” p.4
