Bourgeois revolution

According to one version of the two-stage theory, bourgeois revolution was asserted to be a necessary step in the move toward socialism, as codified by Georgi Plekhanov. In this view, countries that had preserved their feudal structure, like the Russian Empire, would have to establish capitalism via a bourgeois revolution before being able to wage a proletarian revolution. At the time of the Russian Revolution, the Mensheviks asserted this theory, arguing that a revolution led by bourgeoisie was necessary to modernise society, establish basic freedoms, and overcome feudalism, which would establish the conditions necessary for socialism. This view is prominent in Marxist–Leninist analysis. Political sociologist Barrington Moore Jr. identified the bourgeois revolution as one of three routes from pre-industrial society to the modern world, in which a capitalist mode of production is combined with liberal democracy. Moore identified the English, French, and American revolutions as examples of this route. Historian Neil Davidson believes that neither the establishment of democracy or the end of feudal relations are defining characteristics of bourgeois revolutions, but instead supports Alex Callinicos' definition of bourgeois revolution as being those that establish "an independent center of capital accumulation". Charles Post labels this analysis as consequentialism, where there is no requirement of the prior development of capitalism or bourgeois class agency for bourgeois revolutions, and that they are only defined by the effects of the revolutions to promote the development of capital accumulation. Other theories describe the evolution of the bourgeoisie as not needing a revolution. The German bourgeoisie during the 1848 revolution did not strive to take command of the political effort and instead sided with the crown. Davidson attributes their behaviour to the late development of capitalist relations and uses this as the model for the evolution of the bourgeoisie. Left communists often view the revolutions leading to Communist states in the 20th century as "bourgeois revolutions". == Goals of the bourgeois revolution ==

According to the Marxist view, the tasks of the bourgeois revolution include: • The creation of the nation state, which can be constituted differently in different peoples. • The constitution of the state on the basis of popular sovereignty; the rule of law is based on a constitution, which is adopted by the people. • Bourgeois rule, if possible in the form of a democratic republic, which already found its complement in tyranny in antiquity. • The abolition of serfdom and the formation of free wage workers instead. • The separation of producers from the means of production in primitive accumulation. • The abolition of the guilds and freedom of investment. • The free development of the productive forces until they are ripe for social revolution. == Bourgeois revolutions in history ==

Bourgeois revolutions in the Middle Ages customs official tarred and feathered by the Sons of Liberty, during the American Revolutionary War. Although with much less diffusion, some social movements of the European Late Middle Ages have also received the name of bourgeois revolution, in which the bourgeoisie begins to define itself in the nascent cities as a social class. Examples include the Ciompi Revolt in the Republic of Florence, Jacquerie revolts during the Hundred Years' War in France, and in Spain. Bourgeois revolutions in the early modern period The first wave of bourgeois revolutions are those that occurred within the early modern period and were typically marked by being driven from below by the petty bourgeoisie against absolutist governments. • German Peasants' War (1524–1525); also labelled by later historians as an early attempt at a bourgeois revolution • Eighty Years' War (1566–1648); also known as the Dutch revolution • English Revolution (1640–1660) • American Revolution (1765–1783) • French Revolution (1789–1799) • Irish Rebellion of 1798 Bourgeois revolutions in the late modern period in a painting by T. Miyano The second wave of bourgeois revolutions are those that occurred within the late modern period and were typically marked by being led from above by the haute bourgeoisie. • Greek Revolution (1821–1829) • July Revolution (1830) • Revolutions of 1848 • February Revolution (1848) • German revolutions of 1848–1849 • Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states • Hungarian Revolution of 1848 • Risorgimento (1848–1871) • Unification of Germany (1866–1871) • American Civil War (1861–1865) • Japanese Revolution (1868–1869) • Philippine Revolution (1896–1898) • 1905 Russian Revolution (1905–1907) • Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911) • Young Turk Revolution (1908) • Chinese revolution of 1911 (1911–1912) • Mexican Revolution (1910–1917) • February Revolution (1917); also called a "bourgeois-democratic revolution" in Soviet historiography • / Chinese revolution (1925–1953) == References ==