Revolutions and Democracy

The concept of revolution has been very much debated in sociology and in political science, because it involves the twofold problem of political stability and democratization. The aim of this paper is to enquire on the pure concept of revolution and on its theoretic application in social sciences. The distinction between Might and Authority is introduced, as two forms of power resting of different levels of institutionalization, and a preliminary critical revision of the concept of institutionalization is advanced. It is then suggested that a basic variable in the analysis of the revolution may be the level of institutionalization of the challenged power. So the research questions are: What is the power situation leading to the outbreak of a revolution? Are there any differences between the causal factors in the breakdown of institutionalized and de-institutionalized power structures? It is argued that Revolutions are bound to happen where the level of political institutionalization of the community is very low or rapidly declining.