Revolutions or Campaigns? Tearing Down the Berlin Wall in the Study of Mass Mobilization

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an emergence of a sort of a “Berlin Wall” between the studies of revolutions and “maximalist campaigns”. Though the researchers of revolutions and “maximalist campaigns” tend to study quite similar phenomena, they appear to ignore each other’s work. Is this a coincidence that the study of revolutions and “maximalist campaigns” yields so similar results? Of course not, as both kinds of research pay attention to alike event types. However, the “Berlin Wall” separating them negatively affects both camps. We believe that both streams of the modern revolution research should be merged, which could set a starting point to a real breakthrough in our understanding of revolutions and pave way to the formation of the fifth generation of revolution theories.

In recent years, there has been an emergence of a sort of a “Berlin Wall” between the studies of revolutions and “maximalist campaigns”. Though the researchers of revolutions and “maximalist campaigns” tend to study quite similar phenomena, they appear to ignore each other’s work. Is this a coincidence that the study of revolutions and “maximalist campaigns” yields so similar results? Of course not, as both kinds of research pay attention to alike event types. However, the “Berlin Wall” separating them negatively affects both camps. We believe that both streams of the modern revolution research should be merged, which could set a starting point to a real breakthrough in our understanding of revolutions and pave way to the formation of the fifth generation of revolution theories.