SOCI 265 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Political Radicalism, Real Change, Alexis De Tocqueville
12 Mar 2014
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
A fundamental removal of the regime normally with violence, normally with the complete removal of the previous ruling class, involving some measure of popular participation from below, leading to some social transformation. American revolution political, but no real change in social structure: also, must consider the image of the revolution. Toqueville what was france before the revolution: an absolutist regime that was trying desperately to rule france from the centre by installing its own agents, bypassing the upper class. Even more centralized : napoleon: i can tell you what every school child is studying at this moment. Sometimes they complete what was begun before the revolution. France, even more centralized: russia: organizations fully wiped out under bolsheviks. So toqueville argues you"ll have more change if you have a series of small changes rather than revolution: a few propositions, revolutions are only possible when there is a state breakdown. Revolutions are the consequence of state breakdown: consider the great revolutions .
