IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/joupea/v35y1998i1p43-59.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rebellion, Violence and Revolution: A Rational Choice Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Erich Weede

    (Department of Sociology, University of Bonn)

  • Edward N. Muller

    (Department of Political Science, University of Arizona)

Abstract

There are many rebellions, fewer successful rebellions, and extremely few social revolutions. First, the relative frequencies of elite and mass rebellions are investigated. Because a rational choice approach finds it easier to explain elite rebellions and a deprivation approach seems tailored to the explanation of mass rebellions, the relative frequencies of these two types of rebellion favor rational choice. Second, the small number of mass rebellions is related to military issues, such as loyalty and defeat in war. Although military defeat in war is neither close to a necessary, nor to a sufficient condition of successful rebellion, it still might multiply its likelihood. Third, it is argued that the link between international rivalries and great revolutions via ruler discouragement and rebel encouragement is compatible with a rational choice approach. Because it is obviously so important in revolutions, nationalist and religious zealotry needs to be integrated into rational choice approaches to rebellion and revolution.

Suggested Citation

  • Erich Weede & Edward N. Muller, 1998. "Rebellion, Violence and Revolution: A Rational Choice Perspective," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 35(1), pages 43-59, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:joupea:v:35:y:1998:i:1:p:43-59
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jpr.sagepub.com/content/35/1/43.abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bruno Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2005. "Happiness Research: State and Prospects," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 63(2), pages 207-228.
    2. Carl Henrik Knutsen, 2014. "Income Growth and Revolutions," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 95(4), pages 920-937, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:joupea:v:35:y:1998:i:1:p:43-59. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.prio.no/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.