Weber and the Sociology of Revolution

Abstract

Weber wrote about the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917 while they were in progress. Analytically, he held that revolution is a non-legitimate form of change, insofar as the source of legitimate power is the authority of military command in a community of fate organized for foreign war. He thus adumbrates some aspects of contemporary state-breakdown theory, in which revolution hinges upon geopolitical strain and fiscal crisis splitting elites. Yet Weber remained closer to classic Marxian theory of revolutionary interest groups mobilized from below. He broadened interest groups to include status groups as well as economic classes. His description gives leads for a theory of revolutionary process centered on alliances and splits, bandwagon effects and turning points, and the volatility of revolutionary ideas arising from the social organization of full-time political militants. Weber predicted structural change in Russia leading to bureaucratic dictatorship.