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Posted 01/22/01
By Misagh Parsa, Professor of Sociology
Cambridge University Press
In his new book, States, Ideologies, and Social Revolutions, Misagh Parsa presents a comparative work on the revolutions in Iran, Nicaragua, and the Philippines, which took place between 1979 and 1986. In challenging the conventional model of social revolutions, which take into account fewer factors than Parsa believes necessary, he unravels the economic, political and ideological thrusts of each revolution as interpreted by a variety of actors, including students, workers, leaders of established religions, and capitalists, as well as revolutionary challengers. He discusses the necessity of creating a broad-based coalition to spark either a transfer of power or overarching reforms, and mentions how infrequently they occur. He constructs a new model of social revolution using primary data and citing the social structures of Iran, Nicaragua, and the Philippines as being similar before their revolutions, but diverging in their outcomes. Parsa warns that giving more credit to leaders' ideologies than is due is a common failing of existing models. Revolutions, especially as they progress, cannot be ascribed to the ideologies of charismatic leaders. He instead argues:
The leadership of revolutionary challengers was essential for the success of social revolutions. Yet, while revolutionary ideologies and challengers were certainly popular among certain segments of the population, particularly students, analyses of social revolutions should not exaggerate the role of their ideologies in revolutions. These challengers could not and did not always present all aspects of their ideologies to the public either because of government repression or concern for broad political support and formation of coalitions. Thus, the success or failure of revolutionary challengers must also be analyzed in terms of the dynamics of the conflicts and the availability of mobilization options especially in the final stage of insurgency.
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