Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gq7q9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T22:54:04.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The World-Cultural Origins of Revolutionary Waves

Five Centuries of European Contention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Colin J. Beck
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The existence of revolutionary waves is a well-known feature of history. This study contends that revolutionary waves are best understood as systemic phenomena occurring during periods of rapid world-cultural expansion. Rapid expansion and deeper penetration of cultural linkages is theorized to generate contradiction between idealized models and local political practices, empower oppositions, and fracture elites, resulting in waves of revolution. The theoretical logic is illustrated with the example of the Atlantic Revolutions. Multivariate analyses examine the correspondence among a new indicator of world culture, additional systemic processes, and revolutionary waves across five centuries of European history. Results suggest that the occurrence of revolutionary waves is positively associated with relatively rapid world-cultural growth and hegemonic decline, as indicated by periods of hegemonic warfare.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , Summer 2011 , pp. 167 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2011 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, DaronJohnson, Simon and Robinson, James (2005) “The rise of Europe: Atlantic trade, institutional change, and economic growth.” American Economic Review 95: 546–79.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict (1991) Imagined Communities. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Anderson, Perry (1974) Lineages of the Absolutist State. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Arrighi, Giovanni and Silver, Beverly J. (1999) Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Arrighi, GiovanniWallerstein, Immanuel and Hopkins, Terence K. (1989) Antisystemic Movements. New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Bailyn, Bernard (1967) The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Barber, Benjamin R. (1995) Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World. New York: Times Books.Google Scholar
Barkey, Karen (2008) Empire of Difference: The Ottomans in Comparative Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Beissinger, Mark R. (2007) “Structure and example in modular political phenomena: The diffusion of Bulldozer/Rose/Orange/Tulip revolutions.” Perspectives on Politics 5: 259–76.Google Scholar
Bergesen, Albert J. and Lizardo, Omar (2004) “International terrorism and the world system.” Sociological Theory 22: 38–52.Google Scholar
Biggs, Michael (2003) “Positive feedback in collective mobilization: The American strike wave of 1886.” Theory and Society 32: 217–54.Google Scholar
Boli, John and Thomas, George M. (1997) “World culture in the world polity: A century of international non-governmental organization.” American Sociological Review 62: 171–90.Google Scholar
Boswell, Terry and Dixon, William J. (1990) “Dependency and rebellion: A cross-national analysis.” American Sociological Review 55: 540–59.Google Scholar
Boswell, Terry and Dixon, William J. (1993) “Marx’s theory of rebellion: A cross-national analysis of class exploitation, economic development, and violent revolt.” American Sociological Review 58: 681–702.Google Scholar
Boswell, Terry and Sweat, Mike (1991) “Hegemony, long waves, and major wars: A time series analysis of systemic dynamics, 1496–1967.” International Studies Quarterly 35: 123–49.Google Scholar
Brustein, William and Levi, Margaret (1987) “The geography of rebellion: Rulers, rebels, and regions, 1500 to 1700.” Theory and Society 16: 467–95.Google Scholar
Chartier, Roger (1991) The Cultural Origins of the French Revolution. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Chirot, Daniel and Ragin, Charles (1975) “The market, tradition, and peasant rebellion: The case of Romania in 1907.” American Sociological Review 40: 428–44.Google Scholar
Collins, Randall (1998) The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Davies, James C. (1962) “Toward a theory of revolution.” American Sociological Review 27: 5–19.Google Scholar
De Vries, Jan (1984) European Urbanization, 1500–1800. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, S. N. (1999) Fundamentalism, Sectarianism, and Revolution: The Jacobin Dimension of Modernity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Foran, John (2005) Taking Power: On the Origins of Third World Revolutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Freedman, Paul (1993) “The German and Catalan peasant revolts.” American Historical Review 98: 39–54.Google Scholar
Friedland, Roger and Alford, Robert (1991) “Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices, and institutional contradictions,” in Powell, W.DiMaggio, P. (eds.) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 232–66.Google Scholar
Gilpin, Robert (1981) War and Change in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Godechot, Jacques (1965) France and the Atlantic Revolution of the Eighteenth Century, 1770–1799. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Goldfrank, Walter L. (1979) “Theories of revolution and revolution without theory.” Theory and Society 7: 135–65.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Joshua (1985) “Kondratieff waves as war cycles.” International Studies Quarterly 29: 411–44.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Joshua (1988) Long Cycles: Prosperity and War in the Modern Age. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Goldstone, Jack A. (1991) Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Goldstone, Jack A. (2001) “Toward a fourth generation of revolutionary theory.” Annual Review of Political Science 4: 139–87.Google Scholar
Goldstone, Jack A. (2002) “The longue durée and cycles of revolt in European history,” in Marino, J. (ed.) Early Modern History and the Social Sciences. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press: 169–87.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Jeff (2001) No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945–1991. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gorski, Philip (2003) The Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism and the Rise of the State in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gottschalk, Louis (1956) “Reflections on Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 100: 417–29.Google Scholar
Hafner-Burton, Emilie M. and Tsutsui, Kiyoteru (2005) “Human rights in a globalizing world: The paradox of empty promises.” American Journal of Sociology 110: 1373–1411.Google Scholar
Hafner-Burton, Emilie M.Tsutsui, Kiyoteru and Meyer, John W. (2008) “International human rights law and the politics of legitimation: Repressive states and human rights treaties.” International Sociology 23: 115–41.Google Scholar
Hazard, Paul (1953) The European Mind (1680–1715). London: Hollis and Carter.Google Scholar
Hironaka, Ann (2005) Neverending Wars: The International Community, Weak States, and the Perpetuation of Civil War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric J. (1962) The Age of Revolution: Europe, 1789–1848. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Terence and Wallerstein, Immanuel (1982) “Cyclical rhythms and secular trends of the capitalist world-economy: Some premises, hypotheses, and questions,” in Hopkins, Terence and Wallerstein, Immanuel (eds.) World-Systems Analysis: Theory and Methodology. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage: 104–20.Google Scholar
Hung, Ho–fung (2009) “Cultural strategies and the political economy of protest in mid-Qing China, 1740–1839.” Social Science History 33: 75–115.Google Scholar
Jepperson, Ronald L. (2002) “Political modernities: Disentangling two underlying dimensions of institutional differentiation.” Sociological Theory 20: 61–85.Google Scholar
Johnson, Chalmers (1966) Revolutionary Change. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Katz, Mark (1997) Revolutions and Revolutionary Waves. New York: St. Martin’s.Google Scholar
Kiser, Edgar and Drass, Kriss A. (1987) “Changes in the core of the world-system and the production of utopian literature in Great Britain and the United States, 1883–1975.” American Sociological Review 52: 286–93.Google Scholar
Kiser, Edgar and Kane, Joshua (2001) “Revolution and state structure: The bureaucratization of tax administration in early modern Eng land and France.” American Journal of Sociology 107: 183–223.Google Scholar
Koo, Jeong-Woo (2007) “The origins of the public sphere and civil society: Private academies and petitions in Korea, 1506–1800.” Social Science History 31: 381–409.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. (1976) “State power and the structure of international trade.” World Politics 28: 317–47.Google Scholar
Kurzman, Charles (2008) Democracy Denied, 1905–1915: Intellectuals and the Fate of Democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kurzman, Charles and Leahey, Erin (2004) “Intellectuals and democratization, 1905–1912 and 1989–1996.” American Journal of Sociology 109: 937–86.Google Scholar
Levy, Jack S. (1983) War in the Modern Great Power System, 1495–1975. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Levy, Jack S. (1985) “Theories of general war.” World Politics 37: 344–74.Google Scholar
Maddison, Angus (2003) The World Economy: Historical Statistics. Paris: Development Centre, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.Google Scholar
Mann, Michael (1993) The Sources of Social Power. Vol. 2, The Rise of Classes and Nation-States, 1760–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mann, Michael (2004) Fascists. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Markoff, John (1986) “Literacy and revolt: Some empirical notes on 1789 in France.” American Journal of Sociology 92: 323–49.Google Scholar
Markoff, John (1988) “Allies and opponents: Nobility and Third Estate in the spring of 1789.” American Sociological Review 53: 477–96.Google Scholar
Markoff, John (1995) “The great wave of democracy in historical perspective.” Western Societies Occasional Paper, no. 34. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.Google Scholar
Markoff, John (1996) Waves of Democracy: Social Movements and Political Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge.Google Scholar
Merriman, Roger Bigelow (1938) Six Contemporaneous Revolutions. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W. (2000) “Globalization: Sources and effects on national states and societies.” International Sociology 15: 233–48.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W.John Boli, George ThomasRamirez, Francisco (1997) “World society and the nation-state.” American Journal of Sociology 103: 144–81.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W. and Jepperson, Ronald L. (2000) “The ‘actors’ of modern society: The cultural construction of social agency.” Sociological Theory 18: 100–120.Google Scholar
Modelski, George (1978) “The long cycle of global politics and the nation-state.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 20: 214–35.Google Scholar
Modelski, George (1987) Long Cycles in World Politics. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Modelski, George and Morgan, Patrick M. (1985) “Understanding global war.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 29: 391–417.Google Scholar
Modelski, George and Thompson, William R. (1988) Seapower in Global Politics, 1494–1993. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Nexon, Daniel H. (2009) The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Paige, Jeffery (1975) Agrarian Revolution. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Palmer, R. R. (1954) “The world revolution of the West: 1763–1801.” Political Science Quarterly 69: 1–14.Google Scholar
Palmer, R. R. (1959) The Age of the Democratic Revolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rasler, Karen A.Thompson, William R. (1983) “Global wars, public debts, and the long cycle.” World Politics 35: 489–516.Google Scholar
Riddle, Phyllis (1993) “Political authority and university formation in Europe, 1200–1800.” Sociological Perspectives 36: 45–62.Google Scholar
Rudé, George (1981 [1964]) The Crowd in History: A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and Eng land, 1730–1848. London: Lawrence and Wishart.Google Scholar
Schofer, EvanMeyer, John W. (2005) “The worldwide expansion of higher education in the twentieth century.” American Sociological Review 70: 898–920.Google Scholar
Sewell, William H. Jr. (1985) “Ideologies and social revolutions: Reflections on the French case.” Journal of Modern History 57: 57–85.Google Scholar
Sewell, William H. Jr. (1996) “Historical events as transformations of structures: Inventing revolution at the Bastille.” Theory and Society 25: 841–81.Google Scholar
Sharman, J. C. (2003) “Culture, strategy, and state-centered explanations of revolution, 1789 and 1989.” Social Science History 27: 1–24.Google Scholar
Silver, Beverly J.Slater, Eric (1999) “The social origins of world hegemonies,” in Arrighi, G.Silver, B. J. (eds.) Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press: 151–216.Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda (1979) States and Social Revolutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sohrabi, Nader (2002) “Global waves, local actors: What the Young Turks knew about other revolutions and why it mattered.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 44: 45–79.Google Scholar
Strang, DavidMeyer, John W. (1993) “Institutional conditions for diffusion.” Theory and Society 22: 487–511.Google Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney (1993) “Cycles of collective action: Between moments of madness and the repertoire of contention.” Social Science History 17: 281–307.Google Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney (1998) Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney (2001) “Transnational politics: Contention and institutions in international politics.” Annual Review of Political Science 4: 1–20.Google Scholar
te Brake, Wayne (1998) Shaping History: Ordinary People in European Politics, 1500–1700. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles (1978) From Mobilization to Revolution. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles (1993) European Revolutions, 1492–1992. Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Trimberger, Ellen Kay (1978) Revolution from Above. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.Google Scholar
Tsutsui, Kiyoteru (2004) “Global civil society and ethnic social movements in the contemporary world.” Sociological Forum 19: 63–87.Google Scholar
Tsutsui, KiyoteruWotipka, Christine Min (2004) “Global civil society and the international human rights movement: Citizen participation in human rights international nongovernmental organizations.” Social Forces 83: 587–620.Google Scholar
Wallerstein, Immanuel (1980) The Modern World System. Vol. 2, Mercantilism and the Consolidation of the European World Economy. San Diego, CA: Academic.Google Scholar
Wallerstein, Immanuel (1983) “The three instances of hegemony in the history of the capitalist world economy.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 24: 100–108.Google Scholar
Wimmer, AndreasMin, Brian (2006) “From empire to nation-state: Explaining wars in the modern world, 1816–2001.” American Sociological Review 71: 867–97.Google Scholar
Wuthnow, Robert (1989) Communities of Discourse: Ideology and Social Structure in the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and European Socialism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar