Economic rigidity and repression alone do not explain state collapse

Evidence

Historians are still working to explain why the Soviet Union collapsed like it did. Global superpowers don’t usually disappear overnight. We know that the economy was riven with contradictions and lagged behind the world’s most advanced countries; we know that the political system was inflexible; and we know that the Party had used repression to construct and maintain political power. But all three of these things were true, and remain true, in many other countries that go right on existing. They might be true for the vast majority of governments on the planet. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 106

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: State expansion paradoxically reduces effective control and increases reliance on violence — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1726; Financial markets destabilized governments without directly orchestrating their fall; Traditional societies and structures can collapse under external pressures (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Economic theory gives austerity legitimacy that complements raw state coercion #complicates (0.83) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 861
• State expansion paradoxically reduces effective control and increases reliance on violence #qualifies (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1726
• Dictatorships do not make peace and end only through defeat or collapse #complicates (0.80)
• Traditional societies and structures can collapse under external pressures #exemplifies (0.76)
• Financial markets destabilized governments without directly orchestrating their fall #expands (0.75)
• Defeat destroys small states but can regenerate large ones #qualifies (0.74) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 3077