L01 Introduction to Revolutions

Question 1

What are the phases of revolution as described by historian Crane Briton?

Answer 1

-Breakdown of government control as impossible demands made of the government which, if granted, would
mean its end

-Government unsuccessfully attempts to suppress the revolutionaries

-Revolutionaries gain power and seem united behind a moderate regime

-Once in power, unity begins to dissolve as revolutionaries begin to argue/fight among themselves

-Moderates fail to satisfy those on the fringes who want more radical change

-Power increasingly falls into the hands of extremists who resort to violence

-Extremists embrace a utopian program to create a “heaven on earth” and punish all their opponents

-A period of terror occurs

-A strong man emerges to assume all power and restore order

-Restoration - moderate groups regain power ending the revolution

Question 2

“The doctrine of the
absolute uniqueness of
events in history seems
nonsense.”

Who said this?

Answer 2

Crane Briton

Question 3

What are the developing symptoms to the breakdown of government control?( fever chart )

Answer 3

-Middle class discontent

-Inefficient central government/weak ruler/war places a severe strain on the machinery of government

-Government, not society, faces a financial
shortage/government faces bankruptcy in a prosperous
society

-Class conflict develops/conflicts become sharper the
nearer the classes are to each other on the social
scale

-Desertion of the intellectuals/ideas are always part of a
pre-revolutionary situation

Question 4

What is the rule of moderates?( fever chart )

Answer 4

-Creation of a dual government composed of moderates and radicals that attempt to lead the people

Question 5

What is the reign of terror?( fever chart )

Answer 5

-Inexperienced government runs into trouble and resorts to violence

-Purges commonplace

-Government involved in civil or foreign war

-Sharp economic crisis

-Severe class struggle

Question 6

What is the control of extremists?( fever chart )

Answer 6

Forceful minority overthrows the moderates

Question 7

What is monocausal?

Answer 7

Monocausal - meaning that a single event, or chain of events leads to a particular outcome. Direct cause and effect.

Question 7

What is convalescence?( fever chart )

Answer 7

-Establishment of strong man rule

-Pressures relaxed/amnesty may be granted

-More attention to religion or ideology

Question 8

What is restoration?( fever chart )

Answer 8

• Is the “patient” stronger or weaker?

-What difference does revolution make?

Question 9

What is normal?( fever chart )

Answer 9

-Worst of old system ended

-Shift in power and property structure

-New ideas emerge

Question 10

What is multicausal?

Answer 10

Multicausal - or a “web” of events, ideas, people, etc., join together to explain why an event happens. Cause and effect not directly related.

Question 10

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

Who said this?

Answer 10

Mark Twain

Question 11

How did philosophes describe the revolution during the Enlightenment?

Answer 11

by relating it to astronomy – i.e. the
movement to a preestablished point; as in, it takes the earth one year to make a complete revolution
around the sun

Question 11

“Progress, far from consisting in
change, depends on retentiveness.
When change is absolute there remains
no being to improve and no direction is
set for possible improvement: and when
experience is not retained, as among
savages, infancy is perpetual. Those
who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it.”

Who said this?

Answer 11

George Santayana

Question 12

“The art of making an argument about the past by telling a story accountable to evidence.”

Answer 12

Jill Lepore

Question 13

What did ancient Greeks argue history was?

Answer 13

Ancient Greeks argued history was cyclical

Question 14

What are the five states of the state cycle claimed by Plato?

Answer 14

Plato claimed state cycle through five stages:
aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny

Question 15

James DeFronzo’s(2014) definition of a social movement:

Answer 15

“A persistent, organized effort by a relatively large number of people either to bring about social
change or to resist it”

Question 15

Hannah Arendt(1963) argued that a true revolution has two features:

Answer 15

the aim of freedom –
defined as the entrance into and ability to engage in the public realm, to engage in active dialogue and
discourse on public and political matters - and the experience of a new beginning

Question 16

What are the two types of social movements?

Answer 16

-Liberal/progressive(“left-wing”) revolutions - change oriented, emphasis on equality

-Conservative(“right-wing”) revolutions - change resistant, emphasis on order and stability

Question 17

When does a revolution become revolutionary?

Answer 17

-Revolution becomes “revolutionary” when the objective is no longer to reform the
political/social/economic system but to destroy it and replace it with something else

Question 18

Does change have to be violent in revolutionary movements?

Answer 18

Change doesn’t have to be violent but most successful revolutionary movements resort to some
level of violence

Question 19

What is the revolution from above?

Answer 19

-Revolution “from above” (a.k.a. “Heroic” model): small group of people,
usually some sort of elite, driven by ideas about a utopian future brings
about change by inspiring a much larger group of bystanders

-Examples include the Bolsheviks (Russia October/November 1917), Mao
Zedong and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (1949)

-Change is violent because leaders want to destroy the old regime but
eliminate its supporters, too

Question 19

She compared the French, Russian and Chinese revolutions in her
1979 book, States and Social Revolutions.

She argued that all three were
social revolutions that sought the radical transformation of a society’s state and
class structures

Who came up with this argument?

Answer 19

Theda Skcopol

Question 20

What are the five “necessary and sufficient” causes (4 domestic, 1
international) that enable a revolution to take place:

Answer 20

1. Frustration and alienation from regime
2. Emergence of dissident political movements and leaders
3. Ideology that bridges or fuses popular and elite
   grievances
4. Political crisis that paralyzes the ability of the state to
   respond
5. Permissive international environment

Question 20

What are the two schools of interpretation in regards to revolution?

Answer 20

-Revolution “from above” (a.k.a. “Heroic” model)

-Revolution “from below” (a.k.a. “Spontaneous” or “Accidental” model)

Question 21

What is revolution from below?

Answer 21

-Revolution “from below” (a.k.a. “Spontaneous” or “Accidental” model):
emphasizes the role played by the masses in overthrowing the regime.
Revolution is much more broadly-based and spontaneous rather than
planned and led

-Examples include the Russian Revolution (February 1917) and the “Velvet
Revolutions (Eastern Europe 1989)

-Change is (usually) violent because the eruption of popular anger
produces chaos

-Ideas are less important because “the mob” winds up creating violence
for its own sake, sometimes destroying the revolutionary leaders in the
process

Question 22

What are three outcomes of revolutions?

Answer 22

-Worst of old system ended

-Shift in power and property structure

-New ideas/systems/institutions emerge