A revolution combines a divided regime with a shift to new rulers

Evidence

A revolutionary situation splits a regime into two or more blocs, each one controlling some significant segment of state power and/or territory, and receiving significant popular support. Such was the case when RPF and Hutu Power forces each controlled part of Rwanda. A revolutionary outcome shifts control over a state to a new set of rulers. Because states always control concentrated means of coercion and rulers ordinarily deploy those means against their enemies, a revolutionary outcome necessarily includes defection or neutralization of those coercive means as well as acquisition of coercive means by the new rulers. Whether a revolutionary outcome occurred in Rwanda, according to these criteria, depends on how much the Tutsi-led ruling coalition of July 1994 (which by then unquestionably controlled the principal concentrated means of coercion in Rwanda) differed from the Hutu-led ruling coalition of April 1994. Verdict: by this less demanding definition, a revolutionary situation did lead to a revolutionary outcome in Rwanda, and thus a revolution did occur. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 969

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines a revolution as a two-part event—a revolutionary situation (dual sovereignty) plus a revolutionary outcome (new rulers controlling coercion)—and applies it to Rwanda.
• XREF: Useful for reader’s tests of whether regime-type change (such as the 1994 Rwandan coalition shift) counts as genuine revolutionary transformation within Tilly’s framework. — connects to: Regime and repertoire organization shapes which revolutionary shifts occur. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 995; Regimes can dissolve the ruler-ruled divide by trading material comfort for acquiescence — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 305; Revolutions are defined by rapid drastic shifts in capacity or democracy — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 426 (+3 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 969

Broader Connections

• A revolutionary situation’s outcome depends on prevailing regimes and repertoires. #expands (0.82) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1088
• Revolutions are defined by rapid drastic shifts in capacity or democracy #expands (0.80) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 426
• Regime and repertoire organization shapes which revolutionary shifts occur. #expands (0.78) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 995
• Regimes can dissolve the ruler-ruled divide by trading material comfort for acquiescence #qualifies (0.72) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 305
• Political actors form through regimes rather than preceding them. #complicates (0.71) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 576