Structural Models: Skocpol and the State

Theda Skocpol's States and Social Revolutions (1979) challenged explanations that focused on ideas or the plans of revolutionaries. Studying France, Russia and China, she argued that social revolutions happened when three structural conditions met: a state weakened by international pressure such as war or fiscal strain, a divided elite that blocked reform, and a peasantry organized enough to revolt on its own.

Borrowing a phrase from the abolitionist Wendell Phillips, she wrote that revolutions 'are not made; they come'. Her approach explains why France in 1789 and Russia in 1917, both burdened by expensive wars, collapsed so quickly. Critics replied that she underrated ideology, since revolutionaries' beliefs clearly shaped what came next, and later Skocpol gave ideas more weight. The debate between structure and agency, between conditions and choices, runs through every comparison in this course.