Existing theories of revolution are briefly presented and critiqued. Building on recent work, a new model is introduced in which the key variables are the effects of dependent development on social structure, the exclusionary nature of repressive, personalistic dictatorships, the elaboration of political cultures of resistance, and a dual crisis consisting of a simultaneous economic downturn and an "opening" in the world-system. The combination of these necessary and sufficient conditions predicts the outbreak of a successful social revolution. The model is then applied to the similar cases of Iran and Nicaragua and contrasted with the negative case of El Salvador.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abrahamian, Ervand.1980. "Structural Causes of the Iranian Revolution" MERIP (Middle East Research and Information Project) Reports 87 (May):21-26.
2.
_______. 1982. Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton : Princeton University Press.
3.
Algar, Hamid.1980a. Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Translated from the Persian by Hamid Algar. Berkeley: Mizan Press.
4.
. 1980 b. "Preface" to 'Ali Shari'ati. Marxism and Other Western Fallacies: An Islamic Critique Translated from the Persian by R. Campbell. Berkeley: Mizan Press.
5.
Anderson, Thomas.1971. Matanza: El Salvador's Communist Revolt of 1932. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
6.
Arjomand, Said Amir.1985. "The Causes and Significance of the Iranian Revolution ." State, Culture and Society1(3):41-66.
7.
. 1988 . The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
8.
Armstrong, Robert and Janet Shenk.1980. "El Salvador — Why Revolution? " NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America) (March-April).
9.
_____. 1982. El Salvador. The Face of Revolution. Boston: South End Press.
10.
Ashraf, Ahmad, and Ali Banuazizi.1985. "The State, Classes and Modes of Mobilization in the Iranian Revolution." State, Culture and Society1(3):3-40.
11.
Aya, Rod.1979. "Theories of Revolution Reconsidered: Contrasting Models of Collective Violence." Theory and Society8(1):39-99.
12.
Baloyra, Enrique A.1982. El Salvador in Transition. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press.
13.
Balta, Paul and Claudine Rulleau.1979. L'Iran insurgé. Paris: Sindbad.
14.
Bashiriyeh, Hossein.1984. The State and Revolution in Iran 1962-1982. New York: St. Martin's Press.
15.
Bill, James.1982. "Power and Religion in Revolutionary Iran." Middle East Joumal36(1):22-47.
16.
Black, George.1981. Triumph of the People: The Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua . London: Zed Press.
17.
Booth, John A.1985. The End and the Beginning: The Nicaraguan Revolution. 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
18.
Brinton, Crane.1938. The Anatomy of Revolution. New York : Vintage.
19.
Cabarrús, Carlos Rafael.1983. Génesis de una revolución. Analisis del surgimiento y desarrolla de la organización campesina en El Salvador. Mexico City: Ediciones de la Casa Chata.
20.
Calhoun, Craig.1988. "The Radicalism of Tradition and the Question of Class Struggle." Pp. 129-175 in Michael Taylor, ed., Rationality and Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
21.
Cardoso, Fernando Henrique and Enzo Faletto.1979. Dependency and Development in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
22.
Dabashi, Hamid.1993. Theology of Discontent The Ideological Foundation of The Islamic Revolution in Iran. New York: New York University Press.
23.
Danesh, Abol Hassan.1992. "Rural Crisis and Migration: A Variable of Revolution in Iran." In Michael N. Dobkowski and Isidor Wallimann, eds., Research in Inequality and Social Conflict. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
24.
Davies, James C.1962. "Toward a Theory of Revolution." American Sociological Review27: 5-19.
25.
Disch, Arne.1979. "Peasants and Revolts (a Review of Paige)" Theory and Society7 (January-May):243-252.
26.
Dix, Robert H.1984. "Why Revolutions Succeed and Fail." Polity41(3):423-446.
27.
Dunkerley, James.1982. The Long War: Dictatorship and Revolution in El Salvador . London: Verso.
28.
________. 1988. Power in the Isthmus: A Political History of Modern Central America. London: Verso.
29.
Edwards, L.P.1927. The Natural History of Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
30.
Eisenstadt, S.N.1978. Revolutions and the Transfonnation of Societies: A Comparative Study of Civilizations. New York: Free Press.
31.
Enríquez, Laura J.1991. Social Transformation in Latin America: Tensions Between Agroexport Production and Agrarian Reform in Contemporary Nicaragua. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
32.
Evans, Peter.1979. Dependent Development: The Alliance of Multinational, State, and Local Capital in Brazil. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
33.
Farhi, Farideh.1988. "State Disintegration and Urban-Based Revolutionary Crisis: A Comparative Analysis of Iran and Nicaragua." Comparative Political Studies21(2):231-256.
34.
. 1990 . States and Urban-Based Revolutions: Iran and Nicaragua. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
35.
Fischer, Michael M. J.1980. Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
36.
Foran, John. Forthcoming. "The Causes of Latin American Social Revolutions: Searching for Patterns in Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua." In Peter Lengyel and Volker Bornschier, eds., World Society Studies, volume 3: Conflict in World Society. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
37.
. 1993a. "Revolutionizing Theory/Revising Revolution: State, Culture, and Society in Recent Works on Revolution." Contention: Debates in Society, Culture and Science2(2):65-88.
38.
. 1993b. "Theories of Revolution Revisited: Toward a Fourth Generation ?" Sociological Theory11(1):1-20.
39.
——. 1993c. Fragile Resistance: Social Transformation in Iran from 1500 to the Revolution. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
40.
Foran, John and Jeff Goodwin.1993. "Revolutionary Outcomes in Iran and Nicaragua. Coalition Fragmentation, War, and the Limits of Social Transformation." Theory and Society22(2):209-247.
41.
Foster-Carter, Aidan.1978. "The Modes of Production Controversy." New Left Review107:47-77.
42.
Goldfrank, Walter L.1979. "Theories of Revolution and Revolution Without Theory: The Case of Mexico" Theory and Society7:135-165.
43.
Goldstone, Jack.1980. "Theories of Revolution: The Third Generation." World Politics32(3):425-453.
44.
. 1982. "The Comparative and Historical Study of Revolutions." Annual Review of Sociology8:187-207.
45.
. 1986. "Revolutions and Superpowers." Pp. 34-48 in J. R. Adelman, ed., Superpowers and Revolution . New York: Praeger.
46.
Goodwin, Jeff.1988. "Revolutionary Movements in Central America: A Comparative Analysis." Harvard University, Department of Sociology, Center for Research on Politics and Social Organization, Working Paper Series.
47.
Goodwin, Jeff and Theda Skocpol.1989. "Explaining Revolutions in the Contemporary Third World ." Politics & Society17(4):489-509.
48.
Gould, Jeffrey L.1990. To Lead As Equals: Rural Protest and Political Consciousness in Chinandega, Nicaragua, 1912-1979Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
49.
Graham, Robert.1979. Iran: The Illusion of Power. New York : St. Martin's Press.
50.
Green, Jerrold D.1982. Revolution in Iran: The Politics of Countermobilization . New York: Praeger.
51.
Gurr, Ted Robert.1970. Why Men Rebel. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
52.
Halliday, Fred.1979. Iran: Dictatorship and Development. New York: Penguin Books.
53.
. 1982-83. "The Iranian Revolution: Uneven Development and Religious Populism" Journal of IntemationalAffairs36 (2): 187-207.
54.
Hermassi, Elbaki.1976. "Toward a Comparative Study of Revolutions." Comparative Studies in Society and History18(2):211-235.
55.
Hodges, Donald C.1986. Intellectual Foundations of the Nicaraguan Revolution . Austin: University of Texas Press .
56.
Hooglund, Eric J.1982. Land and Revolution in Iran, 1960-1980Austin: University of Texas Press.
57.
Ivanov, M.S.1977. Tarikh-i Novin-i Iran [Modern History of Iran]. Stockholm: Tudeh Publishing Centre.
Jung, Harold.1980. "Class Struggles in El Salvador." New Left Review122:3-25.
60.
Katouzian, Homa.1981. The Political Economy of Modern Iran. Despotism and Pseudo-Modernism , 1926-1979. New York: New York University Press.
61.
Keddie, Nikki.1981. Roots of Revolution. An Interpretive History of Modern Iran. New Haven: Yale University Press.
62.
________. 1983. "Iranian Revolutions in Comparative Perspective." American Historical Review88 (3): 579-598.
63.
Keen, Benjamin and Mark Wasserman.1988. A History of Latin America. Boston : Houghton Mifflin.
64.
McDaniel, Tim.1991. Autocracy, Modernisation, and Revolution in Russia and Iran. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
65.
Midlarsky, Manus and Kenneth Roberts.1985. "Class, State, and Revolution in Central America." Journal of Conflict Resolution29:163-193.
66.
Migdal, Joel S.1974. Peasants, Politics, and Revolution: Pressures Toward Political and Social Change in the Third World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
67.
Moghadam, Val.1989. "Populist Revolution and the Islamic State in Iran." Pp 147-163 in Terry Boswell, ed., Revolution in the World-System. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
68.
Montgomery, Tommie Sue.1982. Revolution in ElSalvador: Origins and Evolution. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
69.
Moore, Barrington, Jr.1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Boston : Beacon Press.
70.
Nolan, David.1984. The Ideology of the Sandinistas and the Nicaraguan Revolution . Coral Gables, FL: Institute of Interamerican Studies, University of Miami.
71.
North, Lisa.1985. Bitter Grounds: Roots of Revolt in ElSalvador. 2nd ed. Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill.
72.
Paige, Jeffery M.1975. Agrarian Revolution: Social Movements and Export Agriculture in the Underdeveloped World. New York: Free Press.
73.
Parsa, Misagh.1989. Social Origins of the Iranian Revolution. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
74.
Pearce, Jenny.1986. Promised Land: Peasant Rebellion in Chaletenango El Salvador . London: Latin American Bureau .
75.
Pesaran, M.H. (under the pseudonym Thomas Walton). 1980. "Economic Development and Revolutionary Upheavals in Iran" Cambridge Journal of Economics (4)3:271-292.
76.
Pettee, G.S.1937. The Process of Revolution. New York : Harper and Row.
77.
Reznikov, A.B.1985. "The Downfall of the Iranian Monarchy (January-February 1979)" Pp. 254-312 in R. Ulyanovsky, ed., The Revolutionary Process in the East: Past and Present. Moscow: Progress Publishers.
78.
Rouquié, Alain.1987. The Military and the State in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
79.
Scott, James C.1976. The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in SoutheastAsia. New Haven: Yale University Press.
80.
. 1990. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts . New Haven: Yale University Press .
81.
Shugart, Mathew Soberg.1989. "Patterns of Revolution" Theory and Society18(2):249-271.
82.
Sivanandan, A.1980. "Imperialism in the Silicon Age." Monthly Review32(3):24-42.
83.
Skocpol, Theda.1979. States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
84.
. 1982a. "What Makes Peasants Revolutionary?" Pp. 157-179 in Scott Guggenheim and Robert Weller, eds., Power and Protest in the Countryside. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
85.
_________. 1982b. "Rentier State and Shi'a Islam in the Iranian Revolution ." Theory and Society11 (3):265 -284.
86.
. 1986. "Analyzing Causal Configurations in History: A Rejoinder to Nichols" Pp. 187-194 in Richard F. Tomasson, ed., Comparative Social Research, Volume 9. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
87.
Smelser, Neil.1963. Theory of Collective Behavior. New York: Free Press.
88.
Snyder, Richard.1992. "Explaining Transitions from Neopatrimonial Dictatorships ." Comparative Politics24(4):379-399.
89.
Somers, Margaret R. and Walter L. Goldfrank .1979. "The Limits of Agrarian Determinism: A Critique of Paige's Agrarian Revolution" Comparative Studies in Society and History21(3):243-258.
90.
Taylor, John G.1979. From Modernization to Modes of Production: A Critique of the Sociologies of Development and Underdevelopment. London: Macmillan.
91.
Taylor, Michael.1989. "Structure, Culture and Action in the Explanation of Social Change." Politics and Society17(2):115-162.
92.
Tilly, Charles.1978. From Mobilization to Revolution. Reading, MA. Addison-Wesley.
93.
Tocqueville, Alexis de.1955. The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
94.
Torres Rivas, Edelberto.1983. Crisis del poder en Centroamérica. San Carlos, Costa Rica: Editoriales Universitaria Centroamericana .
95.
Trimberger, Ellen Kay.1978. Revolution From Above: Military Bureaucrats and Development in Japan, Turkey, Egypt, and Peru. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.
96.
Vilas, Carlos M.1986. The Sandinista Revolution. National Liberation and Social Transformation in Central America. New York: Monthly Review Press.
97.
Walker, Thomas W., ed. 1982. Nicaragua in Revolution. New York: Praeger.
98.
Wallerstein, Immanuel.1974. The Modern World-Systein I. Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. New York: Academic Press.
99.
______. 1979. The Capitalist World-Economy: Selected Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
100.
________. 1980. The Modem World-System II. Mercantilism and the Consolidation of the European World-Economy, 1600-1750. New York: Academic Press.
101.
. 1989. The Modem World-System III. The Second Era of Great Expansion of the Capitalist World-Economy1730-1840s. New York: Academic Press.
102.
Walton, John.1984. Reluctant Rebels: Comparative Studies of Revolution and Underdevelopment. New York: Columbia University Press.
103.
Weber, Henri.1981. Nicaragua: The Sandinist Revolution. London: Verso.
104.
Webre, Stephen.1979. José Napoleón Duarte and the Christian Democratic Party in Salvadoran Politics, 1960-1972Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
105.
Weeks, John.1985. The Economies of Central America. New York: Holmes and Meier.
106.
Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P.1989a. "Winners, Losers,and Also-Rans: Toward a Comparative Sociology of Latin American Guerrilla Movements" Pp. 132-181 in Susan Eckstein, ed., Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social MovementsBerkeley: University of California Press.
107.
. 1989b. "Understanding Failed Revolution in El Salvador: A Comparative Analysis of Regime Types and Social Structures" Politics & Society17(4): 511-537.
108.
________. 1992. Guerrillas and Revolution in Latin America: A Comparative Study opf Insurgents and Regimes Since 1956. Princeton : Princeton University Press.
109.
Williams, Robert G.1986. Export Agriculture and the Crisis in Central America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
110.
Wolf, Eric R.1969. Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century. New York: Harper and Row.
111.
Zabih, Sepehr.1979. Iran's Revolutionary Upheaval: An Interpretive Essay. San Francisco: Alchemy Books.
112.
Zagorin, Perez.1976. "Prolegomena to the Comparative History of Revolution in Early Modem Europe." Comparative Studies in Society and History18(2):151-174.
113.
Zimmermann, Ekkart.1983. Political Violence, Crises, and Revolutions: Theories and Research. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co.
