Revolution: Difference between revisions

A '''revolution''' (from the [[Vulgar Latin|Latin]] ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental [[social change|change]] in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.  

[[Aristotle]] described two types of political revolution:

Revolutions have occurred through [[human history]] and vary widely in terms of methods, duration, and motivating [[ideology]]. Their results include major changes in [[culture]], [[economy]], and [[social institution|socio]]-[[political institution]]s.

Scholarly debates about what does and does not constitute a revolution center around several issues. Early studies of revolutions primarily analyzed events in [[European history]] from a [[psychological]] perspective, but more modern examinations include global events and incorporate perspectives from several [[social science]]s, including [[sociology]] and [[political science]]. Several generations of scholarly thought on revolutions have generated many competing theories and contributed much to the current understanding of this complex phenomenon.

==Etymology==

[[Copernicus]] named his 1543 treatise on the movements of planets around the sun ''De revolutionibus orbium coelestium'' (''On the Revolutions of Celestial Bodies'') and this has come to be the model type of a [[scientific revolution]]. However "Revolution" is attested by at least 1450 in the sense of representing abrupt change in a [[social order]]<ref>[[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]] vol Q-R p. 617 1979 Sense III states a usage "Alteration, change, mutation" from 1400 but lists it as "rare". "c. 1450, Lydg 1196 ''Secrees'' of Elementys the Revoluciuons, Chaung of tymes and Complexiouns." It's clear that the usage had been established by the early 15th century but only came into common use in the late 17th in England. </ref><ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=revolution onlineetymology.com ]</ref>. Political usage of the term had been well established by 1688 in the description of the replacement of [[James II of England|James II]] with [[William III of Orange|William III]]. The process was termed ''"[[The Glorious Revolution]]"''.<ref>Richard Pipes, ''[http://chagala.com/russia/pipes.htm A Concise History of the Russian Revolution]''</ref> Apparently the sense of social change and the geometric sense as in "[[Surface of revolution]]" developed in various European languages from the [[Latin]] between the 14th and 17th centuries, the former developing as a metaphor from the latter. "Revolt" as an event designation appears after the process term and is given a related but distinct and later derivation.

==Types==

There are many different typologies of revolutions in social science and literature. For example, classical scholar [[Alexis de Tocqueville]] differentiated<ref>Roger Boesche, ''Tocqueville's Road Map: Methodology, Liberalism, Revolution, and Despotism'', Lexington Books, 2006, ISBN 0739116657, [http://books.google.com/books?id=fLL6Bil2gtcC&pg=PA86&dq=%22types+of+revolution%22&as_brr=3&ei=hdVQR6TVIpm4pgLFvJ2fBw&sig=ZEc373JU8-9qM9N4BgKjnvvHVD8#PPA86,M1 Google Print, p.86]</ref> between 1) [[political revolution]]s 2) sudden and violent revolutions that seek not only to establish a new political system but to transform an entire society and 3) slow but sweeping transformations of the entire society that take several generations to bring about (ex. [[religion]]). One of several different [[Marxist]] typologies divides revolutions into pre-capitalist, early bourgeois, bourgeois, bourgeois-democratic, early proletarian, and socialist revolutions.<ref>{{pl icon}} J. Topolski, "Rewolucje w dziejach nowożytnych i najnowszych (xvii-xx wiek)," Kwartalnik Historyczny, LXXXIII, 1976, 251-67</ref>

The term "revolution" has also been used to denote great changes outside the political sphere. Such revolutions are usually recognized as having transformed in [[society]], [[culture]], [[philosophy]] and [[technology]] much more than [[political system]]s; they are often known as [[social revolution]]s.<ref>Irving E. Fang, ''A History of Mass Communication: Six Information Revolutions'', Focal Press, 1997, ISBN 0240802543, [http://books.google.com/books?id=QaVfg_vdyxsC&dq=communication+technology+changed+business&as_brr=3&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 Google Print, p. xv]</ref> Some can be global, while others are limited to single countries. One of the classic examples of the usage of the word revolution in such context is the [[industrial revolution]] (note that such revolutions also fit the "slow revolution" definition of Tocqueville).<ref>Warwick E. Murray, Routledge, 2006, ISBN 0415318009, [http://books.google.com/books?id=L-3Vq3aadTYC&pg=PA226&dq=%22cultural+revolutions%22&as_brr=3&ei=ddtQR5aHKovqoQLy7J2UAg&sig=Nrc0rBp_zg_44liln8OLNsUu7UE Google Print, p.226]</ref>

[[File:Lenin.WWI.JPG|thumb|upright|right|[[Vladimir Lenin]], leader of the [[Bolshevik Revolution of 1917]].]]

[[File:Sunyatsen1.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Sun Yat-sen]], leader of the Chinese [[Xinhai Revolution]] in 1911.]]

* [[Subversion]]

==References==

* [http://www.dailyevergreen.com/story/29050 DailyEvergreen.com], Vive la Révolution!: Revolution is an Indelible Phenomenon Throughout History by Qasim Hussaini

* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/mandel/1989/xx/rev-today.htm Ernest Mandel, "The Marxist Case for Revolution Today", 1989]