Organizing the nation: Revolution and the modern state

Abstract

During the nineteenth century historians and philosophers frequently interpreted social developments in terms of scientific theories. Since the science on which they depended was essentially Newtonian, the results were often dehumanizing. Consequently, twentieth century social theorists seeking new syntheses have been reluctant to introduce models developed in the physical sciences. Theorists like Spengler have turned to unsubstantiated metaphysical interpretations, while more conventional approaches have settled for empirical descriptions of vast bodies of uncontrolled data. Either alternative left social developments alienated from accepted understandings of natural processes. It is possible that more sophisticated twentieth century scientific models, such as those derived from irreversible thermodynamics, could re-integrate data from the social realm with fundamental natural processes. The following paper is a highly abbreviated version of a preliminary attempt to understand the emergence of modern nation states through revolutions using the dissipative structures model.