Explanations of revolution must name processes, not prior conditions, and vary by regime.

Evidence

A trustworthy trio of truisms emerges from this survey of Europe’s revolutionary situations. First, the character, loci, and frequency of revolutionary situations varied and changed fundamentally as a function of regime transformations. At least half of what revolution could mean depended on the organization of states and their regimes. In that sense, the history of revolutions tracks the histories of states and regimes. Second, general explanations of revolutions in terms of favorable, necessary, or sufficient conditions might possibly work for a single era and region, but have no chance of validity for all European revolutions, much less all revolutions everywhere. Third, the decomposition of revolutionary situations into formation of contenders, commitment to contenders’ claims, and failures of rulers to suppress the first two disciplines the search for valid explanations, and holds some hope of identifying processes—not prior conditions—that recur in a wide variety of revolutions. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1062

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Revolutionary situations are best explained by regime processes, not universal prior conditions — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1062