Strong States, Weak States: The Role of the State in Revolution

Abstract

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood relationships in the study of political development is that between the strength of the state and revolution. Both logic and a substantial body of theory indicate that revolution should emerge only where old states are too weak to prevent it. If revolution has broken through old structures, the state must have been weak.' Such an assertion, however, borders on the tautological and tells us very little about the relationship between state strength and revolution. If one assesses state strength independently of revolution, the picture looks very different. Observation leads to the counterintuitive conclusion that strong states--not weak ones--are most likely to be associated with revolution.