ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews what consistent findings can be drawn out of studies of revolution. It provides a brief intellectual history of the study of revolution, and identify three sets of consistent findings—the role of external strains on states, brittle regimes, and revolutionary coalitions. The chapter discusses how two recent areas of interest—nonviolent revolution and diffusion of contention across international borders—validate earlier findings yet pose a risk of further fragmentation. The latest cohort of revolution studies has failed. Over a decade ago, Goldstone noted increasing fragmentation in social science of revolution among types, causes, processes, outcomes, and levels of analysis. Insurmountable economic pressures on states are a foremost condition for revolution. A state's relation to other states and larger international environment can also create pressures that lead to revolution. Not all states perform the same under pressure. Some regimes are more brittle and less able to accommodate or co-opt contention, meaning that revolution is the only way out of political dilemmas.
