CPO 2001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Agrarian System, Paradigm Shift, Theocracy

• School: University of Florida
• Department: Comparative Politics
• Course: CPO 2001
• Professor: Elischer, Sebastian

Document Summary

Institutional explanation of why social revolutions occur in some countries but not in others. Focus on social revolutions: revolution from below based largely on peasant/worker revolts, revolution as distinct from rebellions and insurrections revolutions result in regime change (paradigm shift, does not include revolutionary change from above (elite controlled) Structural approach to social revolutions: desire to develop a generalizable and predictive explanation for when social revolutions will happen. Agrarian bureaucracy as a system: agricultural society in which social control rests on a division of labor and a coordination of effort between a semi bureaucratic state and a landed upper class pg. 318: differentiation between landed elite and the state is critical for system breakdown and potential revolution. Significance of agrarian system for revolutionary activity: key economic importance of peasants while still serving as the potential source of revolution, segmented leadership with distance between central administration and landed elite (state reliance on landed elite)