ABSTRACT
Social revolutions", Theda Skocpol writes, "have given rise to models and ideals of enormous international impact". She examines a few competing theories of revolution. Skocpol identifies the "aggregate psychological theory". These are theories that hold that "many people in society"—the aggregate—"are angry"—the psychology—with a common political target. The United States political theorist Chalmers Johnson's theory, the attempt at theorizing revolution under discussion in States and Social Revolutions, focuses on what makes a revolution different from any other outbreak of mass violence. An outbreak of violence with the aim of changing the social system in order to bring it in line with the prevailing consensus on values is not a crime; violence not in line with the prevailing consensus on values, however, is. All of these theories, Skocpol argued, shared a common conception of what revolution is. According to Skocpol's understanding of causes, a number of different factors work together to produce revolution.
