POLB92H3 Lecture Notes - Foco, Voluntaryism, Che Guevara
Document Summary
State or political regime is overthrown due to a popular movement in an irregular manner. Rapid, fundamental, violent transformation of a country"s state structure, social structure, that is accompanied and caused by mass-based revolts from below. State transformation, destruction of the old army, creation of a new one (rare) Class structure: large scale nationalization of private property. Major land reform, destruction of land owning class. E. g. introduction of sharia in iran through morality laws. Not a revolution: arab spring (overthrow of regime but preservation of existing state structures), us 1776 (class structure is not altered), eastern europe (class and state structure changed but weak) Smashing class and state is not easy without violence. Mass repression in russia, china and france. Mass mobilization, state collapse, major social transformation, few cases and hard to study. Durable authoritarian regimes in ussr 74 years, mexico 80 years and china 65 years. People have nothing to lose but their chains.
