Social revolution

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Social revolutions are sudden changes in the structure and nature of society. [1] These revolutions are usually recognized as having transformed society, economy, culture, philosophy, and technology along with but more than just the political systems. [2]

Contents

Overview

Theda Skocpol in her article "France, Russia, China: A Structural Analysis of Social Revolutions" states that social revolution is a "combination of thoroughgoing structural transformation and massive national and class upheavals". [3] [4] She comes to this definition by combining Samuel P. Huntington's definition that it "is a rapid, fundamental, and violent domestic change in the dominant values and myths of society, in its political institutions, social structure, leadership, and government activities and policies" [5] and Vladimir Lenin's, which is that revolutions are "the festivals of the oppressed...[who act] as creators of a new social order". [6] She also states that this definition excludes many revolutions, because they fail to meet either or both of the two parts of this definition. [7]

Academics have identified certain factors that have mitigated the rise of revolutions. Many historians have held that the rise and spread of Methodism in Great Britain prevented the development of a revolution there. [8] In addition to preaching the Christian Gospel, John Wesley and his Methodist followers visited those imprisoned, as well as the poor and aged, building hospitals and dispensaries which provided free healthcare for the masses. [9] The sociologist William H. Swatos stated that "Methodist enthusiasm transformed men, summoning them to assert rational control over their own lives, while providing in its system of mutual discipline the psychological security necessary for autonomous conscience and liberal ideals to become internalized, an integrated part of the 'new men' ... regenerated by Wesleyan preaching." [10] The practice of temperance among Methodists, as well as their rejection of gambling, allowed them to eliminate secondary poverty and accumulate capital. [10] Individuals who attended Methodist chapels and Sunday schools "took into industrial and political life the qualities and talents they had developed within Methodism and used them on behalf of the working classes in non-revolutionary ways." [11] The spread of the Methodist Church in Great Britain, author and professor Michael Hill states, "filled both a social and an ideological vacuum" in English society, thus "opening up the channels of social and ideological mobility ... which worked against the polarization of English society into rigid social classes." [10] The historian Bernard Semmel argues that "Methodism was an antirevolutionary movement that succeeded (to the extent that it did) because it was a revolution of a radically different kind" that was capable of effecting social change on a large scale. [10]

Alternative theories

Skocpol distinguishes her theory from psychological theories of revolution ("aggregate psychological theories"), theories of systems and values, and theories about political conflicts. [12] Ted Robert Gurr and his book Why Men Rebel is given as an example of a psychological theory with this theory explaining violence as a result of anger deriving from an inability of individuals to achieve or do the things they value a state called relative deprivation. [12] Charles Tilly with this book From Mobilization to Revolution is given as an example of a political conflict theory. He argues that groups with resources competed for political power, and that changes in access to resources could result in revolution. [13] Chalmers Johnson with his book Revolutionary Change, discusses a value-based model. Society is modeled in terms of the coordination of different values realized through socialization, norms and rules, which then legitimize the political order. Johnson argues that revolution occurs when these values become disaligned. [14] Skocpol also argues that Marxist theories can be useful for understanding revolutions but that they lack an explanation for when revolutions do and don't occur not considering the role of the organization of the state in revolutions focusing instead of the class structures. [15]

Skocpol argues that while revolutions can be explained in terms of these sociological theories, it is difficult to work out which explanation is true because the concepts are so general. She argues that a comparative historical approach informed by concepts from sociology is useful. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Social conflict theory is a Marxist-based social theory which argues that individuals and groups within society interact on the basis of conflict rather than consensus. Through various forms of conflict, groups will tend to attain differing amounts of material and non-material resources. More powerful groups will tend to use their power in order to retain power and exploit groups with less power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institution</span> Structure or mechanism of social order

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barrington Moore Jr.</span> American sociologist (1913–2005)

Barrington Moore Jr. was an American political sociologist, and the son of forester Barrington Moore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theda Skocpol</span> American sociologist and political scientist (born 1947)

Theda Skocpol is an American sociologist and political scientist, who is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. She is best known as an advocate of the historical-institutional and comparative approaches, as well as her "state autonomy theory". She has written widely for both popular and academic audiences. She has been President of the American Political Science Association and the Social Science History Association.

David G. Bromley is a professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, specialized in sociology of religion and the academic study of new religious movements. He has written extensively about cults, new religious movements, apostasy, and the anti-cult movement.

<i>States and Social Revolutions</i> 1979 book by Theda Skocpol

States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China is a 1979 book by Theda Skocpol, published by Cambridge University Press, that examines the causes of social revolutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Tilly</span> American sociologist (1929–2008)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparative historical research</span> Method in the social sciences

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counter-revolutionary</span> Someone who opposes a revolution

A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revolutionary" pertains to movements that would restore the state of affairs, or the principles, that prevailed during a prerevolutionary era.

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References

  1. "social revolution". oxforddictionaries.com. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on August 25, 2017. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  2. Irving E. Fang, A History of Mass Communication: Six Information Revolutions, Focal Press, 1997, ISBN   0-240-80254-3, p. xv
  3. Skocpol 1979, p. 173.
  4. Parsa, Misagh (2011). "Revolution". In Badie, Bertrand; Berg-Schlosser, Dirk; Morlino, Leonardo (eds.). International Encyclopedia of Political Science . Vol. 7. SAGE Publications. pp. 2312–2317. doi:10.4135/9781412994163. ISBN   9781412959636.
  5. Huntington, Samuel P. 1968. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven: Yale University Press., p.264
  6. Skocpol 1979.
  7. Skocpol 1979, p. 3.
  8. Hobsbawm, Eric (1957). "Methodism and the Threat of Revolution in Britain". History Today . 7 (5). Historians have held that religious Revivalism in the late eighteenth century distracted the minds of the English from thoughts of Revolution.
  9. Maddox, Randy L.; Vickers, Jason E. (2010). The Cambridge Companion to John Wesley. Cambridge University Press. p. 179. ISBN   978-0-521-88653-6.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Swatos, William H. (1998). Encyclopedia of Religion and Society. Rowman Altamira. p. 385. ISBN   978-0-7619-8956-1.
  11. Thomis, Malcom I.; Holt, Peter (1 December 1977). Threats of Revolution in Britain 1789–1848. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 132. ISBN   978-1-349-15817-1.
  12. 1 2 Skocpol 1979, p. 9.
  13. Skocpol 1979, p. 10.
  14. Skocpol 1979, p. 11.
  15. Skocpol 1979, p. 34.
  16. Skocpol 1979, p. 36.

Works cited