The Conjoncture of Ideas and Interests

Abstract

This essay argues that Tocqueville's explanation of the French Revolution, the disjuncture between social and political institutions and social realities, lacks an intervening variable providing the connection between disjuncture and revolution. Drawing on Bendix's (1978) argument that ideas have an impact on social and political action and on Weber's exploration of how these ides are linked to the expression of interests, I propose the spread and impact of ideas as this intervening variable. Critiquing Moore's (1966), Anderson's (1974), and Skocpol's (1979) explanations of the French Revolution—all grounded in material conditions— I argue that interests and ideas must both be present before revolution or other political action occurs. If correct, the argument suggests the importance of ideas in the study of revolution and, more broadly, all social and political movement and change.