Revolutionary mobilization arises when state demands exceed citizens’ willingness to comply

Evidence

When discrepancies increased sharply and visibly between what states demanded of their bestorganized citizens and what they could induce those citizens to deliver, revolutionary situations became more likely. In Europe, pressures of external wars recurrently caused rulers to make such excessive demands, and thus to crystallize widespread resistance. When states made demands on their citizens that threatened widely shared collective identities or violated rights attached to those identities, holders of those identities often formed revolutionary coalitions, acquired broad commitment to those coalitions, and resisted immediate suppression. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1063

Categorization

• QUESTION: The ‘demands exceed capacity to deliver’ mechanism suggests a supply-side asymmetry the reader could probe: do states extending rights to subordinate groups get compliance, while rights-denial triggers resistance — i.e. the channeling claim needs a parallel test about demand-side beyond-capacity failures.
• ADDENDUM: The claim that demands threatening ‘rights attached to collective identities’ triggers resistance is the precise inverse of the reader’s absoption hypothesis — institutional absorption of subordinate grievances may be exactly what prevents such rights-threat coalitions from forming.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1063
• XREF: connects to: High-capacity regimes route contention through government, making mobilization affect regime structure. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 664; Political mobilization requires transforming a confrontation into a broader societal power struggle — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4433; Revolution happens when state barriers to pressure are removed, not blocked. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 4306 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• A state can defuse revolution by restraining provocation and waiting out empty rhetoric. #contradicts (0.82)
• Restricting freedom provokes the rebellion it aims to prevent #corroborates (0.80)
• Rising state capacity raises revolution’s stakes and social impact while lowering its odds. #expands (0.79) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1067
• Revolution happens when state barriers to pressure are removed, not blocked. #complicates (0.78) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4306
• Political mobilization requires transforming a confrontation into a broader societal power struggle #expands (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4433
• Peasant resistance to conscription catalyzed a new regime of state control #exemplifies (0.74) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 490
• High-capacity regimes route contention through government, making mobilization affect regime structure. #qualifies (0.72) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 664
• An occupying power can provoke premature revolt to identify and decapitate resistance #complicates (0.71) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 879