POLB92H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Voluntaryism, Sans-Culottes, Bourgeoisie
Document Summary
Misery and revolution (but poverty causes passivity) Bourgeois revolution (emergence of the commercial class, communist revolutions such as the russian revolution) Should know these different theories for midterm! Rebellion doesn"t just happen if you"re unhappy. It might be the interest of the collective, but not beneficial to you individually. Successful revolutions only happen when there"s a weak state. States that increasingly fell behind military (in comparison with other powers), and in many cases lost wars. Monarch seeks more resources for modernization/war seek more taxes split in upper class. Aristocracy tends to be shortsighted, so they don"t want to give taxes, and this creates an opening. Where an urban revolutionary elite could attach itself to these peasant insurrections, you have revolution. Change that is not open to contingency. Someone must effectively articulate or sell a revolution to the masses. Conditions are everywhere, you need one leader to spark the revolution. E. g. lenin: lead a backward country into the communist revolution.
