Social Revolution

Thank you for reading my take on Skocpol's FRC's Social Revolutions.

I need to admit my writing error on this piece of work, i.e. a couple of times I used "his & he" to denote Skocpol in this summary. It should be noted that all of these should be both her & she.

Thank you very much.

Using historical analysis, the authors identify and classify revolutionary waves — a number
of closely spaced upheavals having a common cause or triggering each other. These waves are
explored in two dimensions: as components of six turbulent periods in the history, the rhythms
of modernization associated with it, and as internal patterns bringing imminent regime falls
and success of protest leaders. As exemplified by “Ignition of quenchers” model, the authors
show a causal chain, where revolutionary success in “ripe” societies with high instability and
weak power seizes less “ripe” communities, where the failure of rebels produces a frustrating effect on others and quenches the wave. The paper provides and studies the most striking examples
of wave dynamics: structural causes and specifics of the Asian wave, comparison of contrasting
cases of “Spring of Nations” and “Arab Spring”, a complex interrelationship of internal and geopolitical processes based on the chronicles of the revolutionary events in Prussia in 1848–1849.
The authors identify the general principles of the interrelationship of internal political dynamics
and geopolitics during these revolutionary waves. In different societies and circumstances, a revolutionary wave spurs either accelerated modernization, or regression (counter-modernization),
or conflicting results.

Революционные волны в Европе и мире как следствия и факторы глобальной модернизации На основе исторического анализа выделены и типологизированы революцион-ные волны-серии близких по времени революционных событий, имеющих общую причину или служащих причинами друг для друга. Эти волны рассмотрены в двух перспективах: как элементы выделенных в истории шести периодов турбулентно-сти, связанных с ней ритмов модернизации и в отношении внутренних закономер-ностей, обеспечивающих падение легитимности режима и успех лидеров протеста. На примере модели «Розжиг тушителей» показана причинная цепь, где революцион-ный успех в «дозревших» обществах с высокой нестабильностью и слабой властью охватывает менее «дозревшие» общности, в которых неудача восставших оказывает фрустрирующее воздействие на остальные и гасит волну. Приведены и рассмотрены наиболее яркие примеры волновой динамики: структурные причины и специфика Азиатской волны, сравнение контрастных случаев «Весны народов» и «Арабской вес-ны», сложная взаимосвязь внутренних и геополитических процессов на материале революционных событий в Пруссии 1848-1849 гг. Сформулированы общие принци-пы взаимосвязи внутренней политической динамики и геополитики в революцион-ный период. В разных обществах и обстоятельствах революционная волна приводит либо к ускоренной модернизации, либо к регрессу (контрмодернизации), либо к про-тиворечивым результатам. * Розов Николай Сергеевич-доктор философских наук, главный научный сотрудник Института фило-софии и права СО РАН, заведующий кафедрой социальной философии и политологии Новосибирского национального исследовательского государственного университета, профессор Новосибирского госу-дарственного технического университета (ННИГУ НГТУ), руководитель проекта «Революционные вол-ны в динамике модернизации обществ XIX-XXI вв.: макросоциологический и социально-философский анализ» (16-03-00318а). Пустовойт Юрий Александрович-кандидат политических наук, доцент кафедры политических наук и технологий Сибирского института управления-филиала РАНХиГС (Новосибирск), исполни-тель того же проекта.

La obra Socialistas-militares: el laberinto boliviano de la experimentación social, 1936-1939 se inscribe en esa iniciativa. Se trata de una investigación propuesta y desarrollada por Andrey Schelchkov, investigador titular del Instituto Universal de la Academia de Ciencias de Rusia, experto en historia latinoamericana y autor de varios libros sobre historia boliviana del siglo XIX a inicios del siglo XX. Su contribución es parte de la producción investiga- tiva del CIS, desde la que se estudian procesos de generación de imaginarios sociales, se exploran las distintas voces que construyeron la historia boliviana de cara a los debates contemporáneos y se discute la dinámica territorial, ideológica y económica plurinacional contemporánea, así como la compleji- dad de su cotidianidad material, cultural y política.

How can societies maximize equal liberty in the context of the modern sovereign state? While liberal democracy is widely recognized as the type of political regime most conducive to this goal, it fails to offer a vision of life beyond state power and lacks sufficient safeguards against socioeconomic inequality. Meanwhile, the traditional anarchist tendency to downplay differences across political regime types has coincided with a commitment to the prefigurative strategic principle that state power cannot be used as a means to the anarchist end. In turn, it will be argued that strict adherence to prefiguration weakens the impact of anarchism, for instance by increasing the risk of bad anarchy. Gradualist anarchism provides a corrective to these issues, but encounters the challenge of bad government traditionally emphasized by anarchists.

Paper presented at the 2nd International Conference on Alternative Futures and Popular Protest, Manchester Metropolitan University, March 1966. The paper reviews Rosa Luxemburg's 'The Mass Strike' along with more recent writings on 'cycles of protest'.

На базе критического анализа дефиниций в наиболее популярных
концепциях революций Т. Скочпол и Дж. Голдстоуна даны определения
социально-политического кризиса и социальной революции. Выделены
главные ступени усугубления кризиса: замирение или подавление
революции, существенные уступки протесту, свержение власти, разрушение
государственности и ключевых социальных институтов. Представлена типология
полей политического взаимодействия: от мирных институциональных (правового,
административного) до наиболее жестоких (открытое уличное насилие,
вооруженное насилие и гражданская война). Переход к открытому конфликту
трактуется как выбор сторонами стратегий подавления, поскольку прежние поля
взаимодействия и мирные стратегии получили отрицательное подкрепление.
Складывающиеся обстоятельства и ход взаимодействия определяют главные
русла конфликтной динамики: эскалация насилия, обычно приводящая к победе
одной из сторон, возобновление мирных стратегий и неустойчивая ситуация,
тлеющий, временами рецидивирующий конфликт, который может продолжаться
годами. Рассмотрены типичные последствия свержения власти – демократизация
и успешное развитие, гражданская война и государственный распад, установление
нового авторитаризма, и зафиксированы дифференцирующие условия.

India saw big gains in financial inclusion with the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) trinity, an initiative by Government of India to link Jan Dhan accounts,
Mobile numbers and Aadhaar cards of Indians to directly transfer subsidies to beneficiaries and eliminate intermediaries and leakages, is nothing short of a social revolution. The schemes which have followed since then have not only aimed for financial inclusion but also to ensure inclusive growth. There is a strong correlation between financial exclusion and poverty and inequality. Till late 2013, according to Ministry of Finance, 45% of urban and 52% of rural households did not have bank accounts. However, financial inclusion is not just about opening of
bank accounts but also access to credit from formal sources. In India with a large rural population, financial exclusion has both geographic and social dimension. Although financial inclusion initiatives started in 1955, gathering momentum with nationalization of private banks in 1969 and 1980, the objective of nationalization was limited to extending bank activities to the unbanked population. Many other factors such as poverty, low-income, distance from bank etc., restricted the rural and vulnerable sections including women from getting access to formal banking system. According to the Census 2011, nearly 73% of farm households did not have access to formal credit sources. However, some 300 million new bank accounts were opened under the Jan Dhan Yojana.

Author: Fareed Khan
Compliled from the writings and speeches of Howard Zinn, PhD.

Civil Liberties, Corporate Taxes, Corporate Welfare, Democratic Decay, Electoral Reform, Fascism, Free Speech, Free Speech Under Assault, Freedom, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Information Security And Privacy, National Security State, Neo-Fascism, Neo-Fascism In The U.S., Occupy Movement, Occupy Wall Street, Political Reform, Political Revolution, Privacy, Social Justice, Social Revolution, The 1 Percent, The 1%, The 99 Percent, The 99%, War Crimes

Las plazas públicas de Marruecos, como las de otros países árabes, vivían en la primavera de 2011 el descontento de quienes, forzados por el cierre de oportunidades de la crisis económica en Europa, habían regresado al origen tras años de fuga de los regímenes de control, censura y poder. Por las grietas del sistema de censura, los jóvenes desempleados recibían a diario imágenes de lo que sucedía en el mundo que les rodeaba, en especial a través de Aljazeera, cadena que presionaba a los gobiernos árabes con diferentes cuestiones democráticas. Dado el bajo índice de acceso de la población a Internet, la televisión y los teléfonos móviles jugaron un papel definitivo en las revueltas.

When the Paris-centered 18th-century intellectual revolution (Enlightenment) coincided with the London-centered First Industrial Revolution, the European intelligentsia demanded a political and constitutional system that closes the iniquitous gap between societal contributions of the forward-looking bourgeoisie and the reality of their inferior politically and legally mandated social status that precluded societal progress. Meritocracy needed to replace the old regime of privilege that allowed the nobility to rule on the basis of birth status, not only because the bourgeoisie wanted political and social recognition commensurate with their actual and potential contributions in all endeavors, as Sieyes wrote in the What is the Third Estate, but because they identified the national interest with their social order and regarded the backward-looking clergy and nobility (First and Second Estates) as more menacing enemies to the French nation than England. This was the birth of a new definition of progress, nationalism, and democracy, along with the nascent stage of bourgeois consciousness and value system.

This book and its methodology could also enable us to understand popular arts in our time, or other times, as having a lot more depth than we often think, even if that depth is unconscious or subconscious or subliminal for the wide audiences of today’s cinema, popular best-selling literature and popular music, to take only three examples. This book is an introduction to the only balanced and just analysis of cultural facts in any society. They are autonomous, meaning that they work with their own logic. They are rational, meaning this logic is the product of a reasonable and sensible attitude of the authors and artists, and we can only understand them properly if we start from this very inner logic. They may be articulated onto society, some elements coming from it and some elements reacting onto it, but they stand apart on their own feet. If they are articulated onto society it’s because some in society use them as tools to reach their own objectives. All approaches that decide culture is nothing but the result of social and political contradictions and some mirror reflection of social and political reality are wrong. Culture is the representation of the relation between man and the universe in the most general definitions of both terms, and this representation, this spiritual vision is absolutely indispensable for each man and all men to cope with their fate and with life. This is an essential debate that is clearly stated in this book, in one period of history, but it encompasses a lot more than just this historical period, and particularly it proves that ideology is a filter that prevents us from seeing things properly and that manipulates our intellect. Christopher Hill is a perfect example of this shortcoming of ideology and it is no excuse for him that he endorsed the ideological vision of Thomas Edwards. As a Marxist, he should have known better and especially done better.

Dokonując syntetycznego ujęcia wyników różnych badań, oraz proponując nowe typologie, wbrew hegemonicznemu dyskursowi panującemu w Polsce, autor dochodzi do wniosku, że transformacja ustrojowa na przełomie lat 80-tych i 90-tych, nie była przejściem od komunizmu do kapitalizmu wolnorynkowego. Była natomiast przejściem od post-stalinowskiego kapitalizmu quasi-państwowego do prywatno-państwowego kapitalizmu rynkowego zdominowanego przez najsilniejsze państwa i korporacje, przemianą nie od autorytaryzmu politycznego do demokracji, lecz od autorytaryzmu do parlamentarnego republikanizmu oraz transformacją nie od marksistowskiej gospodarki planowej do wolnej gospodarki, lecz od autorytarnej gospodarki nakazowo-rozdzielczej do korporacyjnej gospodarki rozproszonego autorytaryzmu. Z punktu widzenia filozofii moralnej, transformacja, chociaż spełniła etyczny warunek sytuacji rewolucyjnej, inaczej zwany warunkiem racjonalnej wolności realizacji nowego systemu, a także częściowo poprawiła kontrolę ludzi nad swoim życiem, nie spełniła warunku racjonalnego wyboru.  Zahamowała również ówczesne i przyszłe alternatywy maksymalizujące wolność.

Социально-политические кризисы и социальные революции являются важнейшими фазами исторической динамики, продвигающими общества к более высоким или более низким ступеням политической и социальной эволюции. Даны и обоснованы определения кризисов и революций, показаны их место и роль в
универсальной модели исторической динамики. Представлены главные структурные варианты следствий этих конфликтных периодов (преодоление кризиса, революция без свержения власти, революция со свержением власти, революция с распадом государственности и базовых социальных порядков) и основные условия выбора пути в этих исторических развилках.

Socio-political crises and social revolutions are the most important phases of historical
dynamics/ They promote societies to higher or lower levels of political and social evolution. The definitions of crises and revolutions are given and justified, their place and role in the universal model of historical dynamics are shown. The main structural variants of the consequences are overcoming the crisis, revolution without the overthrow of power, revolution with the overthrow of power, revolution with the collapse of statehood, and basic social orders. The basic conditions for choosing the path in these historical forks are presented.

The paper analyses the social historical circumstances and class interests underlying tendencies of authors publishing in the sociological mainstream professional journals in the world and in Serbia to use strikingly more often the term "elite" than the term "class"in their research of the social structure transformation processes in the societies of former real existing socialism since the last decade of the 20th century. The starting hypothesis of the paper is that theoretical and practical disputes between advocates of the prevalent use of different, often conflicting conceptual-theoretical and methodological research framework of transition/transformation of the structure of social relations, reflect class interests of large social groups to 1. conserve the existing social relations of the class division of labor between the rulers and ruled, presenting these historically created relationships of dominance as inevitable and eternal, 2. reform the existing social relations within the limits of the existent system of relations of exploitation and oppression in order to relatively improve their own position within these relationships, or 3. fundamentally transform existent relations through the participation of all concerned in a self-managing practice of overcoming class divisions of labour as a basis of exploitation and oppression. The hypothesis will be verified through a critical analysis of the content of the relevant works of the first and by 2010 the only domestic author who has made an effort to explicitly theoretically elaborate the supplementation of his systematic endeavor from the 1980s to define, operationalize and apply in the research of the transformation of social relations the term "class" within the framework of the Marxist paradigm, from the point of view of the revolutionary interest of modern slave labor, to abolish the class division of labor as a source of reproduction of exploitation and oppression in the production process, by introducing into his research since the end of the 1990s the term "elite". The purpose of this analysis is to determine which theoretical, methodological and practical political implications entails the introduction of the notion of "elite" into research from a standpoint of the reformist interest of the highly educated petty bourgeoisie to position itself better in the restaurated capitalist social relations of life reproduction. The main finding of this analysis is that the introduction of this terminological novelty from a changed class interest position results on the theoretical methodological plane in bending towards the functionalist paradigm of the meritocratic distinction between the active elite and the passive mass, as well as between the interdependent status groups within the technical division of labor and the process of exchange of timeless "forms of capital" on the market as the optimal allocator of rare resources, and on the practical political plan, legitimizing and legalizing the strategy of the world recolonization, carried out in the former societies of the really existing socialism and the wider periphery of the system of the world capitalist economy, by the locally absent ruling class of transnational financial capital with the help of the local comprador bourgeoisie.
U radu ce analiziraju društveno-istorijske okolnosti i klasni interesi u osnovi sklonosti autora koji objavljuju u stranim sociološkim časopisima glavnog toka u svetu i kod nas, da upadljivo češće upotrebljavaju izraz „elita“ od izraza „klasa“ u svojim istraživanjima procesa preobražavanja društvene strukture u bivšim društvima realno postojećeg socializma, počev od poslednje decenije dvadesetog veka. Namera ove analize je da utvrdi koje teorijsko metodološke i praktičko političke posledice ima uvođenje pojma elite u istraživanje, polazeći od stanovišta reformističkog interesa visoko obrazovane intelektualne sitne buržoazije da se što bolje pozicionira u okviru zatečenih kapitalističkih društvenih odnosa reprodukcije života. Osnovni nalaz ove analize je da uvođenje uočene terminološke novine, polazeći od klasnog stanovišta intelektualne sitne buržoazije, na teorijsko metodološkom planu ima za posledicu priklanjanje funkcionalističkoj paradigmi meritokratskog razlikovanja aktivne elite i pasivne mase, te međuzavisnih statusnih grupa u okviru tehničke podele rada i procesa razmene vanvremenih „formi kapitala“ na tržištu kao optimalnom alokatoru retkih resursa. Na praktično političkom planu, potiskivanje klasne analize u korist analize elita, dovodi do učešća u legitimizaciji i legalizaciji strategije rekolonizacije sveta koju sprovodi lokalno odsutna vladajuća klasa transnacionalnog finansijskog kapitala u bivšim društvima realno postojećeg socijalizma i širom periferije sistema svetske kapitalističke privrede, uz pomoć posredničkih usluga lokalne kompradorske buržoazije.

Notes for Panel 16: Great Refusals: Refusing One Dimensionality Today

The Dialectics of Liberation in an Age of Neoliberal Capitalism
International Herbert Marcuse Society

Seventh Biennial Conference, 26-28 October 2017, York University

https://marcuseconference.wordpress.com/

The book about the objective laws of nature and society. Based on the paradigms of positivism and dialectical materialism proposes a new concept of civilization development. The author violated the unwritten ban on study of the relationship between society and the social elite, analyzing their driving forces and mechanisms. The detailed classification of the social elite introduces a number of new concepts and categories and is based on the thesis about the parasitic elite functions in a social environment. As the main driving force of civilization development is the confrontation of the State and Society.
Книга об объективных законах развития природы и общества. На основе парадигм позитивизма и диалектического материализма предлагается новая концепция цивилизационного развития. Автор нарушает табу на исследование отношений между обществом и социальной элитой, анализируя их движущие силы и механизмы. В работе дается подробная классификация видов социальных элит, вводится целый ряд новых понятий и категорий, а также обосновывается тезис о паразитической функции элиты в социальной среде. В качестве основной движущей силы цивилизационного развития рассматривается противостояние государства и общества.

Publisher: New Statesman
Author: Russell Brand
Date: Oct. 24, 2013

Political reform, Electoral reform, Tax Loopholes, Corporate Welfare, Corporate Taxes, The 99%, The 99 Percent, The 1%, The 1 Percent, Occupy Movement, Democratic Decay, Social Justice, Social Revolution, Political Revolution

Panel 30: Great Refusals: Refusing One Dimensionality Today

The Dialectics of Liberation in an Age of Neoliberal Capitalism

International Herbert Marcuse Society

Seventh Biennial Conference

26-28 October 2017

York University

https://marcuseconference.wordpress.com/

This essay explores the relationship between the artist the authoritarian state by introducing the concept of "art and counter-art". While art is simply defined as the artist's 'power of performance', in the words of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, counter-art is defined as the state's 'performance of power'.

Mit ihrem aktuellen, auf soziale Bewegungen orientierten, Buch teilt Alissa Starodub ihre Gedanken und Erfahrungen in Hinblick auf die Herausbildung einer solidarischen Gesellschaft. Anhand der vier Hauptbeispiele von solidarisch-ökologischer Landwirtschaft, Freiräumen, den Protesten gegen Gipfeltreffen von Regierungspolitiker*innen und Kollektivbetrieben umkreist sie den Begriff der Präfiguration.

Resumen: En este texto se desarrolla un acercamiento al problema de las formas de acción colectiva y de representación que se pueden presentar como alternativas con potencial de transformación de las condiciones sociales más allá de la estructura ideológica del sistema capitalista. A partir de una confrontación entre Cornelius Castoriadis y Slavoj Žižek con respecto a la posibilidad de autoinstitución de la sociedad y la necesidad de vincular la multitud a una representación unitaria, se analizan los dilemas concretos de la lucha revolucionaria a través de las figuras de Lenin y Robespierre. Este análisis permite concluir que la irrupción de la libertad de los colectivos en los eventos revolucionarios implica un tipo de violencia que impide determinar con certeza su dirección. Sin embargo, tal violencia también es la condición que enmarca el acto revolucionario en una dimensión ética, como una decisión que posibilita la transformación del imaginario.

Abstract: This text develops an approach to the problem of the forms of collective action and representation that can be proposed as alternatives with potential to transform social conditions beyond the ideological structure of the capitalist system. The concrete dilemmas of the revolutionary struggle are analyzed through the figures of Lenin and Robespierre, after a discussion of the arguments of Cornelius Castoriadis and Slavoj Žižek on the possibility of self-institution of society and the need to link its multiplicity to a unitary representation. The paper concludes that the irruption of the collectives’
freedom in revolutionary events implies a type of violence whose direction is difficult to determine with certainty. However, this violence frames the revolutionary act in an ethical dimension, as a decision that enables the transformation of the imaginary.

Publisher: Truthout.org
Author: Henry A. Giroux
Date: Apr. 26, 2014

Civil Liberties, Democratic Decay, Fascism, Free Speech, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Income Inequality, National Security Agency, National Security State, Neo-Fascism, Neoliberalism, Political Revolution, Social Darwinism, Social Justice

Publisher: Toronto Star
Author: John Cartwright
Date: Dec. 11, 2010
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/905536--corporate-greed-is-eroding-foundations-of-a-just-society

Democratic Decay, Political reform, Electoral reform, Corporate Welfare, Corporate Taxes, The 99%, The 99 Percent, The 1%, The 1 Percent, Social Revolution, Political Revolution, Social Justice, Canadian Corporate Taxes

Neuanfänge gleich welcher Art zu initiieren, bedeutet einen Dreischritt im Umgang mit den vorhandenen Ordnungen zu gehen. Zunächst setzten sie eine Ent-Identifizierung von Subjekten mit einer verfestigten,
bestehenden Ordnungsstruktur voraus, in welcher sie keinen Anteil finden können. Zweitens ist zu verstehen, dass Ausbeutung, Ausgrenzung, Unterdrückung und Entfremdung in unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen Folgen jeder historisch-spezifischen Herrschaftsformation sind. Ein gesellschaftlicher Neuanfang, welcher diese Bezeichnung verdient, kann nur glaubwürdig von jenen sozialen Gruppen ausgehend gedacht werden,
welche aus der dominanten Gesellschaftsordnung aus verschiedenen Gründen herausfallen, die sich jedoch organisieren und nicht mehr mit dem Alten identifizieren wollen. Als dritter Schritt folgt die Neu-
Identifizierung mit einer Alternative, welche aus der Erfahrung von Kontingenz möglich wird.