ABSTRACT
This chapter presents political consequences of socioeconomic development. Earlier articles have stated that such development preceded the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution. Olson reinforces and generalizes the statements of Engels and Tocqueville. He argues that economic change when it is rapid—upward or downward—produces instability. The hypothesis would not be proven even if every period of rapid economic growth were shown to be politically destabilizing, for the instability in these periods of rapid economic growth could be due to other factors that were operating at the same time. The revolutionary ferment which characterized Russia in this period and which reached its climax in the revolutions of 1917 may, therefore, have been related to the take-off of the Russian economy.
