Legacies of States and Social Revolutions
| Published date | 01 November 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02633957241245895 |
| Author | Stathis N Kalyvas |
| Date | 01 November 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue Article - States and Social Revolutions at 40: A Symposium |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957241245895
Politics
2024, Vol. 44(4) 521 –529
© The Author(s) 2024
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/02633957241245895
journals.sagepub.com/home/pol
Legacies of States and Social
Revolutions
Stathis N Kalyvas
University of Oxford, UK
Abstract
Forty years after its publication, Theda Skocpol’s States and Social Revolutions confronts us with
a series of questions: Are social revolutions different today compared with 50 years ago, and
if yes in what ways and why? What is the state of the study of Revolutions in political science
and sociology? More generally, how do we understand and relate to social revolutions in the
post-Cold War world? Why do we pay more attention to civil wars now compared with then –
and vice versa? If the 40th anniversary of Theda Skocpol’s path-breaking book forces these
questions on us, answering them opens up fundamental concerns about how we approach the
study of social phenomena and the way we are embedded, as social scientists, into the politics
of our world.
Keywords
revolutions, Skocpol, states
Received: 13th March 2024; Accepted: 13th March 2024
There is no question that States and Social Revolutions (SSR) is one of the most influen-
tial social science books of the past 50 years. It has inspired generations of scholars – I
count myself among them – and has had a lasting impact on multiple subfields of political
science and sociology. In political science, SSR has had a decisive impact on the field of
Comparative Politics; in sociology, it has helped spawn an entire subfield, Historical
Sociology. ‘Contentious politics’, a label designating the study of mass protests and social
movements, is also largely beholden to SSR. Finally, this is also the go-to exemplar for
how to use the method of comparative historical analysis (Kreuzer, 2023b). Out of SSR
grew an extensive research ‘ecosystem’ centred on the study of revolutions and beyond,
which finds itself happily in its ‘fourth generation’. Altogether this is a spectacular
achievement.
Corresponding author:
Stathis N Kalyvas, All Souls College, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 4AL, UK.
Email: stathis.kalyvas@politics.ox.ac.uk
1245895POL0010.1177/02633957241245895PoliticsKalyvas
research-article2024
Special Issue Article - States and Social
Revolutions at 40: A Symposium
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