ABSTRACT
The modern Latin American revolutions have come of age in a time of economic dependency that contrasts rather sharply with that of the essentially preindustrial first generation. This chapter introduces the concept of consolidation as a process distinct from institutionalization and as an analytically useful tool in the effort to understand social revolutionary processes as well as other forms of societal change. It considers the role of individuals in the social revolutionary process and suggests that they are responsible for the direction the revolutionary process takes after political victory. Perhaps the greatest influence on all investigations of revolution continues to be Karl Marx's theory of self-conscious movements rooted in class conflict. A principal alternative to Marx can be found in the "political conflict" approach of Charles Tilly. The structuralist models of Samuel Huntington and, more recently, Theda Skocpol have been paradigmatic in the social sciences.
