10 CONDITIONS WHICH CAUSE REVOLUTIONS

FROM: Crane Brinton’s 1938 classic “Anatomy of a Revolution”

10 CONDITIONS WHICH CAUSE REVOLUTIONS:

1. People from all social classes are discontented.
2. People feel restless and held down by unacceptable conditions and dead end restrictions in society, the economy, religion, or the government.
3. People are hopeful about the future, but are forced to accept less than they had hoped for.
4. Growing bitterness among social classes.
5. The social classes closest to one another are the most hostile.
6. The scholars and thinkers give up on the way society operates, and start to talk openly about breakdown.
7. The government does not respond to the needs of its society.
8. The leaders of the government and the ruling class begin to divide and doubt themselves. Some join with the opposition groups.
9. The government is unable to get enough support from any group to save itself.
10. Government cannot organize its finances correctly and is either going bankrupt or trying to tax heavily and unjustly.