The Fifth Generation of Revolution Studies. Part I: When, Why, and How Did It Emerge

Critical Sociology. 2025. Vol. 51. No. 2. P. 257–282.

Andrey Korotayev, Leonid Grinin, Vadim Ustyuzhanin, Egor Fain

There are grounds for claiming that a new (‘fifth’) generation of revolution studies has emerged in the 21st century. It can be noted that the characteristics of this generation are as follows: a tendency toward a macro-level outlook, encompassing both historical and geographical dimensions, coupled with a propensity toward a systemic approach; study of distinct types of revolutionary processes, such as Mark Beissinger’s ‘urban civic revolutions’, and the pivotal revolutionary innovations, including the impact of new information technologies in recent revolutions; innovations regarding the factors and causes of revolutions and innovations in the analysis of the factors influencing the choice of revolutionary strategy and revolution outcomes; a special interest in the topic of revolutionary waves/‘the diffusion of revolution’; a strong understanding that armed and unarmed revolutionary events are characterized by significantly different factors, structure, and consequences; a focus on the study of unarmed revolutionary episodes/‘non-violent maximalist campaigns’; the use of global databases of revolutionary events; extensive use of modern methods
of quantitative analysis.

Keywords: political science, revolution, generations of revolution studies, revolution studies, fifth generation of the theory of revolutions

Publication based on the results of: State Resilience and National Security of Russia in the Context of the World Order Transformation (2025)