ABSTRACT
Theda Skocpol's States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China is a highly important work, serving as the archetype of third-generation theories of revolution in its emphasis on structural factors such as class and the nature of the economy. However, as Skocpol herself noted, "scholarly works in the social sciences start to become outdated the moment they are published", as new forms of revolution take root globally. Revolutions continue to be a distinctive feature of world politics, and their study remains of crucial importance. George Lawson, a more recent theorist of revolutions, has recently written about how we might be able to theorize the Arab Uprisings. Theda Skocpol's States and Social Revolutions, presented a vision of revolution-total change of every relationship, political and social, within a state-that suggested revolutions are not "made" by angry or idealistic revolutionaries, but rather, they "come" as agrarian bureaucracies lose their grips on their states.
