Abstract

Orthodox academic Marxism used to make revolutions sound something like boxing matches: two fully mobilized classes, locked in irreconcilable conflict, enter the ring and slug it out. To the winner went the crown (almost literally) — class control of the state. Happily, recent studies of revolution have exposed this tired formula as theoretically simplistic and historically inaccurate. The impressive theoretical model-building by some historical sociologists has made it impossible to focus only on class struggle when explaining revolutions. New elements — the position of the state in an international arena of geopolitical competition, the mobilization of classes towards an international labor market, the complex relationships among classes and the state — have added to the structural equation.