ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the natural history approach and looks at the three major theoretical approaches to revolutions that have been developed: social-psychological theories, Marxian theories, and so-called state-centered theories. It continues the analysis of state-centered theories and explores several other related theoretical issues. Until recently some of the most popular theories of revolution were basically social psychological in nature. These theories locate the sources of revolutionary change in the feelings and attitudes of subordinated and oppressed social groups. Jeffery Paige focuses overwhelmingly on how forms of economic organization and class structure promote or prevent peasant revolution in Third World countries where the majority of people earn their living primarily through agricultural work of one type or another. Paige argues that the sharecropping system has normally been conducive to socialist or communist revolutionary movements, such as prevailed in Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s.
