| Chapter 2: | Pattern of the Insurrection and Modernity |
analyze the Ethiopian episode and shed light on the anatomy of Third World revolutions.
Social science scholarship has done much to scrutinize and identify the causes of revolutions. The pattern of analyses and their intrinsically varied perspectives have been studied under three major subdivisions.3 In the early part of this century, Ellwood, Sorokin, Edwards, Lederer, Pettee, and Brinton left their imprint on the crucial investigation of revolutionary phenomena. But since their preoccupation was with the identification of the main stages of revolutionary processes and a description of sociodemographic changes that took place after the change, their studies had numerous shortcomings. Ellwood, for example, tried to explain revolutions by what he called a breakdown in “social habits”; LeBon, through “mob psychology,” and Sorokin, through the effect of “repression of basic instinctual needs”.4
Since then, a second generation of scholars has arisen. This group, which has provided a serious critique of the first generation of Western studies of revolution, has attempted to advance new insights to develop theories that would explain why and when revolutionary upheavals arise. Davies, Gurr, Feierabend, Schwartz, and Geschwender thus suggested that revolution originates from the condition of the state of mind of the masses.5 The critical moment is, according to their analytical framework, when the cognitive state of the masses reaches “frustration” or “deprivation” compared with some preconceived goals.
For Feierabend, “frustration” and / or “deprivation” originates during the process of urbanization and modernization; for Davies and Geschwender, from short-term socioeconomic problems; and for Gurr, from denial of access to some groups’ specific political and economic benefits. Smelser, Johnson, Tiryakian, Hart, Jessop, and Hagopian, on the other hand, believe that revolution arises when a state of disequilibrium arises between the social system and its subsystems such as the economic, political, social, and cultural status of the country.6
Another group (Amman, Huntington, Stinchcombe, and Tilly) traces the origin of revolutions to conflicts between competing interest groups.7 Revolution arises, according to them, when there is a lack of