Evolution and Typology of Revolutions

Leonid Grinin explores the development of revolutions over 500 years from the Reformation to the Arab Spring. He suggests that the formation of the modern type of revolutions as a powerful tool of social and economic progress started from the Reformation. He also defines four important prerequisites for the transition to modern revolutions and shows that by the beginning of the sixteenth century they had already been formed in a number of European societies. Although revolutions occurred in the ancient world and in the Middle Ages, their role in the development of the historical process was relatively insignificant. Only starting from the Modern period did the role of revolutions as driving forces and engines of the historical process, increase dramatically. This chapter analyzes the lines of transformation of revolutions in terms of their contribution to revolutionary strategy and goals, ideologies and social bases, and also the way the information technologies used during revolutions have changed throughout these centuries. It shows the important changes introduced by each major revolution to revolutionary practices and to the very understanding of the essence of revolution. The author shows their changing significance over the course of the historical process, in particular, how their world-historical role was transformed. Grinin also proposes a new typology of revolutions.