Nature of a Revolution
Revolutions have always played a significant role the world history. Aristotle, de Tocqueville, Weber, Marx, Engels, and many other historians conducted a lot of deep research on past events and found various interesting patterns. Nowadays, experts continue to work hard analyzing the main causes and the major outcomes of the strike processes. Thus, there is quite enough material that provides substantial information about the course of revolutions, main reasons, and results.
Definition and Characteristics of the Term
To begin with, it is important to discuss the term. Many historians attempted to explain this phenomenon, but Huntington gives one of the most certain definitions. He states that revolution is “a rapid, fundamental, and violent domestic change in the dominant values and myths of a society, in its political institutions, social structure, leadership, and government activity and policies” (Goldstone, 2003). Therefore, it is a social movement that occurs due to accumulated regular dissatisfaction by the current ruling organizations. According to DeFronzo (2014), revolutions can be either leftist or rightist, or, in particular cases, they also can have a few characteristics of both. Left-wing movements aim to transit existing political, social, or economic relationships, while right-wing actions tend to keep traditional order. Such shifts in the communities do not happen quite often, and they usually enhance modernization. Revolution is “the extreme case of the explosion of political participation” (Goldstone, 2003). The most prominent and meaningful revolts that resulted in altering institutions occurred in France, China, Mexico, Russia, and Cuba.
Differences between a “Revolution” and a “War”
Revolutions and wars have a lot of similarities, and that might cause confusion between these two terms. However, Goldstone, argues that the main difference between a revolution and a war is that the first one supposedly brings changes to the environment (2003). Wars usually occur due to confrontations of the armed communities and their incapability of reaching consensus, but the result of them might be just reconciliation without any shifts within the existing structures. Most of the time, revolutions involve political aspects and strikes for modernization. In addition, revolutions more often aim to fight against the ruling elite (due to the discontent of the masses), while wars can occur between various groups of people (due to any type of conflict). A successful revolutionary movement includes the rise of dissatisfaction in the society, emerging elites with modern views, common ideas uniting different groups, governmental incapability to deal with problems, and formal indifference of the other countries (DeFronzo, 2014). However, it might be important to take a look at a bigger picture to get a deeper understanding. According to Galili and Garcia (2019), it is crucial to think about both political solutions and political conditions that form relationships in the community. All of the factors mentioned above contribute to revolt formation.
Main Causes of Revolution
Historians do a lot of research trying to figure out why strikes evolve and what are the main patterns for them. There are a few common reasons that make people vigorously demand institutional changes. One is the oppression of the masses by the governmental elite. Certain societal groups feel neglected by others and want to achieve equality. The government often fails “to maintain the effectiveness of justice of the regime” (Goldstone, p. 12). For example, the Russian political system was a centralized traditional monarchy, which supported feudalism and harassed the peasantry. Sheila Fitzpatrick argues, that while the whole country was going through economic improvements and modernization, the peasantry, which constituted approximately 80% of the population, did not experience any renovations or positive changes (Fitzpatrick, p. 16). It is important to note that democratic or communistic countries are less likely to experience such types of strikes because they usually tend to avoid the oppression of specific groups. Issues associated with the increase in the number of people in the country, unemployment, and decreasing well-being of the communities contribute to the emerging revolts.
The other reason might be a continuous struggle among elites to agree on the way of ruling the country. To operate in order, the leaders have to consider all social groups and make sure their interests are presented. Citizens want to make sure that the government knows about their demands or struggles. In case the ruling party does not pay enough attention to the groups, the leaders of the communities start protesting. It is more often the case with educated groups who want to actively participate in political life. Often, these groups tend to seek some support from less knowledgeable but strong and numerous parts of the population. For example, the working class in cooperation with the peasantry drove the Russian revolution. Urban laborers created ideas but they needed people from the rural areas to become more massive.
Conclusion
To conclude, the importance of revolutionary movements cannot be underrated. Without any doubt, ruling the country is not an easy task. Therefore, the government has to be mindful of all classes that form the society. Showing disrespect to some of them as well as the deterioration of any structures might lead to violent strikes and revolts. This will result in major changes within the political environment, and, even more crucial, can cause deaths.
Bibliography
- DeFronzo, James. Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2014.
- Garcia, Ziva Galili y. Menshevik Leaders in the Russian Revolution: Social Realities and Political Strategies. S.l.: Princeton Univ Press, 2019.
- Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Russian Revolution. New York, NY. Oxford University Press, 2017.
- Goldstone, Jack A. Revolutions: Theoretical, Comparative, and Historical Studies. Belmont, CA Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2003.