To what extent revolution replaces the existing order of society? Discuss. (UPSC CSE Mains 2016 - Sociology, Paper 1)
- According to James M Jasper, ‘Revolution is a social movement that seeks, as minimum, to overthrow the government or state’.
- Green Revolution, Knowledge Revolution, Social Revolution etc, but they are more so in metaphorical sense and more strictly its context is political as in James Jasper’s definition of overthrowing an existing political order by means of mass participation and often accompanied by violence as well.
- A revolution is also different from other similar sounding terms like revolt, uprising, rebellion or mutiny in the sense that the latter may not have a lasting impact on the society.
- A revolution leads to fundamental change in the structure of the society, while the latter may be merely attempts at such a change.
Causes of Revolution
- Their root causes are structural in nature, and the processes associated with their mass mobilization typically involve cultural, psychological, and political factors.
- The systematic social scientific study of revolutions may be traced back to the 19th
- These early works accounted for the structural causes and social forces behind them.
Conditions for revolution
- Mass discontent leading to popular uprisings,
- Dissident political movements with elite participation,
- Strong and unifying motivations across major parts of the society,
- A significant political crisis affecting the state reducing its ability or will to deal with the
- opposition (see political opportunity), and
- External support (or at last, lack of interference on behalf of the state)
Social movements and revolutions
- Social movement may want to make various reforms and to gain some control of the state, but as long as they do not aim for an exclusive control, its members are not revolutionary.
- Social movements may become more radical and revolutionary, or vice versa – revolutionary movements can scale down their demands and agree to share powers with others, becoming a run-of-the-mill political party.
Examples
- Social change and revolution exist in a classic dialectic: social change causes revolution, and revolutions often cause social change. Revolutions, meaning mass movements aimed at effecting fundamental political and social changes in their societies, have frequently broken out in empires or in semi-colonial countries. At times, revolutions began in metropolitan societies in part due to social changes unleashed by their empires. Many revolutionary states have themselves been expansionist powers that attempted to spread their systems and/or ideologies. In many societies, the imposition and functioning of imperial rule led to both widespread mass discontent and the rise of a literate, nationalist elite. Cases in which these two converged often led to revolutions against empires or regimes viewed as overly subservient to foreign interests, as was the case in Cuba, China, and Iran.
- Goodwin distinguishes between conservative (reformist) and radical revolutionary movements, depending on how much of a change they want to introduce.
- An example of a conservative revolutionary movement would be the American Revolutionary movement, or the Mexican Revolutionary movement.
- Examples of a radical revolutionary movement include French Revolution, Bolsheviks Revolution in Russia, Revolution led Chinese Communist Party and other communist movements in most of Southeast Asia and most recently Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt.
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