Harvard Government 20 Week 6 Handout 2

Government 20: Week 6, Lecture 2: Theories of Revolution I. Relative Deprivation Theory (Gurr, Davies) A. The Theory: 1. Key role of expectations and relative, rather than absolute, misery 2. Revolutions occur where steady growth leads to rising expectations, and then economic downturn frustrates those expectations (ex. Russia) B. Problem: Many cases of frustrated expectations not leading to rebellion (ex. Latin America in the 1980s) II. Problems with Marxism and Relative Deprivation Theory A. Ignore Problems of Collective Action B. Underestimate Resilience of State Institutions III. Skocpol’s State-Centered Theory A. Conditions Necessary For Social Revolution 1. State weakness, due to: a. Agrarian bureaucracy b. Military competition, defeat 2. Peasant insurrection, facilitated by: a. Internal solidarity b. Peasant autonomy 3. Urban revolutionary elite B. Cases that meet this conditions: 18th century France, early 20th century Russia, China C. Omplications of Skocpol’s work a. Structuralist: little independent role for leadership or ideology b. Rural focus: revolutions are peasant-based; no room for urban revolution D. Critiques of Skocpol a. The role of leadership b. The role of ideology Key Terms The J-Curve Mancur Olson and the Logic of Collective Action The free rider problem/collective action problems Agrarian bureaucracy