The Structure of Comparison in the Study of Revolution (original) (raw)

Reflections on Historiography and Theory of Revolution

Res Historica, 2020

The major aim of this article is to analyse the concept of revolution and changes within the theory of revolution. Theorising about radical social changes raised questions which still have not been answered: how is revolution different from other social changes? Does it have the beginning and the end? Is it a result of chance or a necessity? Why does it take place at a particular time, in a given place? How does it evolve? These basic problems are still the subject of study today.

The Comparative Method in Practice: Case Selection and the Social Science of Revolution

Formalization of comparative case methodology has given the appearance of growing consensus and cross-disciplinary acceptance around a set of best practices. Yet how researchers actually use a method may differ widely from what methodologists believe, which is the crux of institutionalization of a method. This study examines whether comparative methodology has, in fact, institutionalized within the social sciences using evidence from the entire corpus of comparative studies of revolution published from 1970 to 2009. Content analysis of methods of case selection within the revolution subfield reveals a wide diversity of strategies with only modest methodological awareness by practitioners, a lack of consensus among which case selection strategies to use, and little convergence over time. Thus, the comparative method has not yet institutionalized in its practice. Methodological practice has implications for the coverage of cases of revolution and what is substantively known about the phenomenon.

Revolution: Characteristics, taxonomies and situational causes

Journal of Economic and Social Thought, 2019

Revolution is an historical process that generates a rapid and radical (social, economic and political) change in society. This conceptual paper shows basic characteristics, taxonomies and situational causes of revolution. Moreover, this study also suggests that acurrent and distinct form of revolution, not included in previous studies, is terrorism. Overall, then, it seems that terrorism has many analogies with some drivers of revolution (e.g., economic, social, political and demographic determinants) and can generate changes in society, similarly to revolutions.

Goldstone et al. (2022). The Phenomenon and Theories of Revolutions

2022

The present chapter offers a general understanding of the development of ideas and theories of revolution. It provides a survey of views on revolutions over the last two centuries. It also analyses the transformations of revolutions proper, and of views on them, from the end of the twentieth century through the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Goldstone et al. offer a deep analysis of four generations of the modern study of revolutions. Special attention is paid to the third generation of theories, which emerged in the late twentieth century. These scholars contributed new approaches to: (1) the role of the state; (2) international factors; (3) the role of the army; (4) the role of elites; and (5) the particular historical conditions under which revolutions and revolutionary transformations occurred. The authors also describe how since 2000 a new—a fourth—generation of theories of revolutions has been forming. This approach is associated with the study of the color revolutions and the Arab Spring, and so fully incorporates non-violent revolutions. It also returns to explicit consideration of the World System and its development, and focuses on the changing features, characteristics, and historical meaning/role of revolutions and how they are connected with world-system and historical processes.

Towards a theory of revolution

This is an essay on comparative constitutional history and comparative revolution. In it, I will consider the development of the rule of law as a phase of state building, paying particular attention to representative institutions. I will compare the constitutional histories of England, France, Russia, Germany and the United States from their origins to the point in each nation's history which I consider the end of that country's revolution. It is my thesis that all revolutions are about law and constitutional arrangements.

PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY OF HISTORY Book 2 The causes, dynamics and meaning of revolution

URSS, 2019

Methodological Introduction: The Approach to the Study of Regimes, Crises and Revolutions Part I SOCIAL ORDER, ITS VIOLATION AND CHANGE Chapter 1. The Multilevel Ontology of Social Stability Chapter 2. Political Relations,Typology of Legitimacy, . and Regimes’ Transformation Chapter 3. Neo-Patrimonialism: Nature, Diversity, and Variability Part II ORDER IN DISORDER: HISTORICAL ROLE, CAUSES, AND DYNAMICS OF REVOLUTIONS Chapter 4. Social Revolutions, Lines of Modernization and the Meaning of History Chapter 5. The Ripening of Crises and Revolutions . Chapter 6. Regularities and Trajectories of Revolutionary Dynamics Part III. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION Chapter 7. The Russian Empire and Yugoslavia: Comparison of the State Breakdowns 145 Chapter 8. The Vector of the Great Russian Revolution (1905–1930): Modernization or Counter-Modernization? Chapter 9. Mechanisms of Conflict Dynamics in Petrograd 1917 Chapter 10. The Fall of the Monarchy: Forks and the Cascade of Events in the February Days Part IV. MACROSOCIOLOGY AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF REVOLUTIONS Chapter 11. Revolutionary Waves in World History: Types, Selection Criteria, and Causal Analysis Chapter 12. The Post-Soviet Regimes, Crises, and Revolutions Chapter 13. Principles and Criteria for Legitimacy of Post-Revolutionary Regimes Appendix 1. Acceleration of History: Causal Mechanisms and Limits Appendix 2. Randall Collins's Theories of Historical Dynamics and the Context of Russian Politics Appendix 3. Machine Guns and Army Democracy: an Essay in Historical Microsociology