The Revolutionary City

"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activity-and its outcome-is still based around work on social revolutions, social science is working with an outdated understanding of how revolutions happen, and the shape they may take in the future.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"--