France, Russia, China - a structural analysis of social revolutions (Skocpol) PDF

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Summary of the reading France, Russia, China - a structural analysis of social revolutions (by Skocpol)...

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Theda Skocpol. “France, Russia, China: A Structural Analysis of Social Revolutions.” As Huntington points out, social revolutions are rapid, basic transformations of socio-economic and political institutions, and as Lenin reminds us social revolutions are accompanied and in part effectuated through class upheavals from below. Revolutions tend increasingly to be viewed not as 'locomotives of history', but as extreme forms of one or another sort of behavior that social scientists, along with established authorities everywhere, find problematic and perturbing. Hypotheses: Social revolutions can be treated as a 'theoretical subject'? Aim: (1) analyse the conditions for the occurrence and short- term outcomes of the great historical social revolutions in France, Russia and China. (2) suggest reasons for similarities and differences in the outcomes of 3 revolutions. METHOD: comparative historical method 1. Why did she select these cases? because of successful revolutions that took place there. 2. In addition to the above cases, which other countries does Skocpol look at? Why? Germany, Japan, Russia before 1905, Turkey, Prussia. These cases didn’t go all the way , they had revolutionary aspects, but they are not THAT revolutionary as France, Russia and China cases. All affected by “modernization” These are "negative" cases in which revolutions were not fully successful. 3. Why did she use “historical comparative method”? the best method to compare the structure and aspects of the events in comparison 4. Is Skocpol’s approach more inductive or more deductive? Inductive: from data to theory 5. Her principal conclusions: 1. revolutions require specific conditions from: week military and administrative structures, peasant rebellion and dominant class. 2. Revolutions tend to be cause by a collapse of administrative or military structures. 3. Widespread through the country....