The Domestic-International Dichotomy

Abstract

This chapter challenges the domestic-international dichotomy. Many established theories of revolutionary emergence focus on domestic factors such as economic downturns, elite conflict and defection from the state, and the mobilizing capacity of opposition forces. This dichotomy makes the international influence on all of these domestic factors opaque. Domestic economic conditions are heavily shaped by international markets. Elite decisions about whether to support or oppose the state are linked to alliances with other nations and international organizations. And oppositional organizing capacity is enhanced by support from transnational movements (such as the influx of resources from diaspora supporters) and the transmission of tactics and strategies from revolutionaries in one region of the world to another. In short, there are no fully domestic revolutions; revolutions are always influenced by international factors. Yet all too often, revolutionary scholarship has seen international factors as a backdrop to domestic factors, which are perceived as having the real explanatory power. Researchers have grafted international factors onto existing models in an “add and stir” approach, rather than examining how international dynamics permeate and shape domestic dynamics “all the way down.” The chapter proposes an alternative “inter-social” approach. It highlights how international dynamics help to constitute revolutionary situations, trajectories, and outcomes through an analysis of the 1977–79 Iranian revolution.