ABSTRACT
‘Revolution’ is yet another widely used term in the political vocabulary and perhaps even more in political rhetoric, quite apart from its frequent literary use as in ‘technological revolution’, or its historical use, as in the ‘agricultural revolution’ or the ‘industrial revolution’. It is also used in conjunction with other terms like ‘rebellion’, ‘coup d’état’, and ‘insurrection’, often without drawing adequate conceptual distinctions between them. However, it is common to regard the English Revolution of the seventeenth century, the American Revolution of 1774–89, the French Revolution of 1789, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Chinese Revolution of 1949 as revolutions in the sense that they involved the violent overthrow of a regime followed by significant changes in society, and it is the latter – significant changes in society – which is normally taken to distinguish revolutions from rebellions, coups d’état, and insurrections.
