The Revolutionary City - by Mark R Beissinger (Paperback)

About the Book

"For many decades, "social revolutions" have been a major focus of social scientific work. Defined by Theda Skocpol in her classic work States and Social Revolutions as "rapid, basic transformations of a society's state and class structures that are accompanied and in part carried through by mass based revolts from below," these types of revolutions have become much less frequent, which has led some political scientists to believe that the age of revolutions is over. Yet as Beissinger argues, while social revolutions are on the decline, another, unrecognized type is on the rise: the "urban civic" revolution. These rebellions (the revolutions in Tunisia and Ukraine, for example) are characterized not by armed rebellion, widespread street-fighting, or urban rioting, but instead by attempts to mobilize as many people as possible in central urban spaces in a concentrated period of time-paralyzing commerce, administration, and society through the power of numbers with the hope of inducing regime collapse. Because much of the theory and understanding of revolutionary activity-and its outcome-is still based around work on social revolutions, social science is working with an outdated understanding of how revolutions happen, and the shape they may take in the future. This book seeks to address this and to demonstrate that revolution as a mass political project of regime-change has actually become more frequent. Using data on the outcomes of 343 revolutionary episodes around the world from 1900 to 2014, Beissinger develops a theory of urban revolution, places this explosion of urban revolutionary contention into global historical perspective, and shows how these revolutions happen and whether and when they succeed. He focuses on how the spatial context of revolt (namely, the city) alters the character of revolutions and the options states have in addressing and repressing them. Crucially, Beissinger argues, cities present certain advantages to revolutionaries; as they succeed, and as urbanization continues, revolutions may see more success than they have historically"--

Book Synopsis

How and why cities have become the predominant sites for revolutionary upheavals in the contemporary world

Examining the changing character of revolution around the world, The Revolutionary City focuses on the impact that the concentration of people, power, and wealth in cities exercises on revolutionary processes and outcomes. Once predominantly an urban and armed affair, revolutions in the twentieth century migrated to the countryside, as revolutionaries searched for safety from government repression and discovered the peasantry as a revolutionary force. But at the end of the twentieth century, as urban centers grew, revolution returned to the city--accompanied by a new urban civic repertoire espousing the containment of predatory government and relying on visibility and the power of numbers rather than arms.

Using original data on revolutionary episodes since 1900, public opinion surveys, and engaging examples from around the world, Mark Beissinger explores the causes and consequences of the urbanization of revolution in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Beissinger examines the compact nature of urban revolutions, as well as their rampant information problems and heightened uncertainty. He investigates the struggle for control over public space, why revolutionary contention has grown more pacified over time, and how revolutions involving the rapid assembly of hundreds of thousands in central urban spaces lead to diverse, ad hoc coalitions that have difficulty producing substantive change.

The Revolutionary City provides a new understanding of how revolutions happen and what they might look like in the future.

Review Quotes

"Winner of the Luebbert Best Book Award, Comparative Politics Section of the American Political Science Association"

"The most important new book on revolutions to appear in decades."---Jack A. Goldstone, Mobilization

About the Author

Mark R. Beissinger is the Henry W. Putnam Professor of Politics at Princeton University. His books include Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State and Historical Legacies of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe.