Compare the different types of revolution, including a discussion of the principal actors involved and the strategies employed. Under what conditions is revolution most likely?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The ideal answer should include:
1. A revolution is a rapid and fundamental transformation of the state organization and the class structure. There are four basic strategies to achieve a revolution:
- Terrorism: Terrorism involves selective acts of violence, usually by small, organized cells of political activists that lack sufficient membership and resources to sustain a direct struggle against the existing state. Violence is used to disrupt public life and to provoke repressive responses from the state and, thus, to foster political decay and undermine support for the state.
- Revolution from above: In a revolution from above (Johnson 1983), violent resistance to the regime occurs primarily in urban centers, especially the capital city. Typically, the final collapse of the old regime is rapid because its leaders are killed or flee.
- Guerrilla war: The essence of guerrilla war is a long, protracted campaign of political violence against the state from rural bases, although the fighting can be in both rural and urban areas. It is a direct struggle against the military because the guerrilla forces persistently harass the regime's military and authorities by fighting in a hit-and-run style, suddenly attacking an exposed point and then disappearing into the population and the countryside.
- Democratic revolution: Democratic revolution occurs when legal, generally nonviolent political action is effectively mounted to achieve a fundamental transformation of the political system.
2. There are many factors that make revolutions more likely. The most important include the following: substantial inequality, unfulfilled expectations of the population, vulnerable state structures, existence of organized opposition, political opportunities, and many others.