Left or centre? Theda Skocpol’s States and Social Revolutions from the French Revolution to today
| Published date | 01 November 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02633957241245897 |
| Author | Hugo Drochon |
| Date | 01 November 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue Article - States and Social Revolutions at 40: A Symposium |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957241245897
Politics
2024, Vol. 44(4) 543 –553
© The Author(s) 2024
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DOI: 10.1177/02633957241245897
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Left or centre? Theda
Skocpol’s States and Social
Revolutions from the French
Revolution to today
Hugo Drochon
University of Nottingham, UK
Abstract
Forty years on, Theda Skocpol’s account of the French Revolution remains remarkably robust. But
how are we to think about political change today? Since Louis XVI walked up to the guillotine, we
have been used to thinking of a left/right opposition driving political change, but this was not the
only division at the time, nor indeed since: during the Terror, Robespierre was supported by the
Montagnards, the deputies who sat on the highest benches of the Assembly, while the opposition
was located at the bottom, in the Marais or the Plain. Like during la Terreur, today’s politics, from
France to the United States, appears more to oppose a centre to an extreme, and this prism
allows us to track Skocpol’s own evolution since 1979, from periphery to centre.
Keywords
revolutions, Skocpol, states
Received: 27th March 2023; Revised version received: 6th October 2023; Accepted: 13th March 2024
Unlike some of the more illustrious members of this special issue (Kalyvas, 2024;
Kreuzer, 2024), I did not read Theda Skocpol’s States and Social Revolutions while in
grad school over 30 years ago. Indeed, I am not even sure I could read 30 years ago! So
for me, reading States and Social Revolutions was not an étape obligatoire in my graduate
formation. Reading the book today, however, 40 years after its first publication in 1979,
and in its new Canto Classics edition of 2015, makes me regret that it was not, as its
analysis of revolution, and the French Revolution in particular – the focal point of my
undergraduate dissertation – remains as fresh and robust as when it was first published.
Corresponding author:
Hugo Drochon, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham, University Park,
Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.
Email: Hugo.Drochon@nottingham.ac.uk
1245897POL0010.1177/02633957241245897PoliticsDrochon
research-article2024
Special Issue Article - States and Social
Revolutions at 40: A Symposium
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