Bourgeois revolution

File:Bürgerkinder zur Biedermeierzeit (um 1820).jpg

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.{{sfn|Post|2019|pp=157–158}}{{cite book |last=Plekhanov |first=Georgi |author-link=Georgi Plekhanov |date=1949 |title=The Bourgeois Revolution: The Political Birth of Capitalism |orig-date=1895 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1895/anarch/bourgeois-revolution.htm |via=Marxists Internet Archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180901214130/https://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1895/anarch/bourgeois-revolution.htm |archive-date=1 September 2018}} In this view, countries like the Russian Empire that had preserved their feudal structure would have to establish capitalism via a bourgeois revolution before being able to wage a proletarian revolution.{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/s/t.htm |title=Stagism |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Marxism |via=Marxists Internet Archive |access-date=6 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201182148/https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/s/t.htm |archive-date=1 December 2017}}{{cite web |last=Lane |first=David |title=Revisiting Lenin's theory of socialist revolution on the 150th anniversary of his birth |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2020/04/22/revisiting-lenins-theory-of-socialist-revolution-on-the-150th-anniversary-of-his-birth/ |date=22 April 2020 |website=European Politics and Policy |publisher=London School of Economics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200503022934/https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2020/04/22/revisiting-lenins-theory-of-socialist-revolution-on-the-150th-anniversary-of-his-birth/ |archive-date=3 May 2020}} At the time of the Russian Revolution, the Mensheviks asserted this theory, arguing that a revolution led by the bourgeoisie was necessary to modernise society, establish basic freedoms, and overcome feudalism, which would establish the conditions necessary for socialism.{{r|Stagism}} This view is prominent in Marxist–Leninist analysis.{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.lacittafutura.it/cultura/grandezza-e-limiti-della-rivoluzione-borghese-in-marx |title=Grandezza e limiti della rivoluzione borghese in Marx |first=Renato |last=Caputo |language=it |trans-title=Magnitude and limits of the bourgeois revolution in Marx |magazine=La Città Futura |access-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306140446/https://www.lacittafutura.it/cultura/grandezza-e-limiti-della-rivoluzione-borghese-in-marx |archive-date=6 March 2023}}{{cite journal |first=Innocenzo |last=Cervelli |date=1976 |title=Sul concetto di rivoluzione borghese |language=it |trans-title=On the concept of bourgeois revolution |journal=Studi Storici |volume=17 |number=1 |pages=147–155 |access-date=6 March 2023 |jstor=20564411 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20564411}}

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.{{sfn|Calvert|1990|pp=53–55}}

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".{{r|Davidson, 2012}}{{cite journal |first=Donny |last=Gluckstein |date=7 October 2013 |url=http://isj.org.uk/comment-on-bourgeois-revolutions/ |title=Comment on bourgeois revolutions |journal=International Socialism |issue=140 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170518085938/http://isj.org.uk/comment-on-bourgeois-revolutions/ |archive-date=18 May 2017}}{{sfn|Post|2019|pp=160–161, 166–167}} 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.{{sfn|Post|2019|pp=160–161}}

Other theories describe the evolution of the bourgeoisie as not needing a revolution.{{cite book |last=Blackbourn |first=David |author-link=David Blackbourn |title=Economy and Society: A Silent Bourgeois Revolution |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/5374/chapter-abstract/148175701 |pages=176–205 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230221133738/https://academic.oup.com/book/5374/chapter-abstract/148175701 |archive-date=21 February 2023}} in {{harvp|Blackbourn|Eley|1984}} The German bourgeoisie during the 1848 revolution did not strive to take command of the political effort and instead sided with the crown.{{harvp|Hallas|1988|pp=17–20}}; {{harvp|Klíma|1986|pp=93–94}}; {{harvp|Calvert|1990|pp=53–55}}{{cite book |last=Blackbourn |first=David |author-link=David Blackbourn |title=Economy and Society: The shadow side |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/5374/chapter-abstract/148177433 |pages=206–237 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230221133737/https://academic.oup.com/book/5374/chapter-abstract/148177433 |archive-date=21 February 2023}} in {{harvp|Blackbourn|Eley|1984}} Davidson attributes their behaviour to the late development of capitalist relations and uses this as the model for the evolution of the bourgeoisie.{{cite book |last=Davidson |first=Neil |author-link=Neil Davidson (historian) |title=How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions? |publisher=Haymarket Books |location=Chicago, Illinois |date=2012 |isbn=978-1-60846-067-0 |chapter=Marx and Engels (2) 1847–52 |pages=144 |quote=In a world where most states have not yet experienced bourgeois revolutions, where most are even more economically underdeveloped than Germany, they too will give rise to "belated" bourgeoisies, the implication being that it is Germany rather than France that represents the likely pattern of bourgeois development.}}

Left communists often view the revolutions leading to Communist states in the 20th century as "bourgeois revolutions".{{cite journal |title=China: The bourgeois Revolution has been accomplished, the proletarian Revolution remains to be made |url=https://www.sinistra.net/lib/upt/compro/lipi/lipifbobee.html |journal=Communist Program |number=3 |date=May 1977 |via=International Library of the Communist Left |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231010095709/https://www.sinistra.net/lib/upt/compro/lipi/lipifbobee.html |archive-date=10 October 2023}}{{sfn|Post|2019|pp=164–165}}

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.{{sfn|Marx|Engels|1956|loc=8, p. 197}}{{sfn|Marx|Engels|1956|loc=16, p. 157}}
• The constitution of the state on the basis of popular sovereignty; the rule of law is based on a constitution,{{sfn|Marx|Engels|1956|loc=37, p. 463}} which is adopted by the people.
• Bourgeois rule,{{sfn|Marx|Engels|1956|loc=8, p. 196}} if possible in the form of a democratic republic,{{sfn|Marx|Engels|1956|loc=22, pp. 235–236}}{{cite journal |first=Hartmut |last=Elsenhans |author-link=Hartmut Elsenhans |title=Democratic revolution, bourgeois revolution, Arab revolution: The political economy of a possible success |journal=NAQD |volume=29 |issue=1 |date=2012 |pages=51–60 |doi=10.3917/naqd.029.0051 |url=https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_NAQD_029_0051--democratic-revolution-bourgeois.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230413085459/https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_NAQD_029_0051--democratic-revolution-bourgeois.htm |archive-date=13 April 2023}} which already found its complement in tyranny in antiquity.{{sfn|Marx|Engels|1956|loc=17, p. 337}}
• The abolition of serfdom and the formation of free wage workers instead.{{sfn|Marx|Engels|1956|loc=17, p. 592}}{{sfn|Heller|2006|loc=Introduction pp. 2–4}}
• The separation of producers from the means of production in primitive accumulation.{{sfn|Marx|Engels|1956|loc=23, pp. 741–761}}
• The abolition of the guilds and freedom of investment.{{sfn|Marx|Engels|1956|loc=17, p. 592}}
• The free development of the productive forces until they are ripe for social revolution.

== Bourgeois revolutions in history ==

Although with much less diffusion, some social movements of the European Late Middle Ages 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,{{cite book |first1=Michel |last1=Mollat |author1-link=:fr:Michel Mollat du Jourdin |first2=Philippe |last2=Wolff |author2-link=:fr:Philippe Wolff |title=Ongles bleus, jacques et ciompi - les révolutions populaires en Europe aux XIVe et XVe siècles |language=fr |trans-title=Ongles bleus, Jacquerie and Ciompi - popular revolutions in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries |publisher=Calmann-Lévy |date=1970}} and {{ill|Bourgeois revolts of Sahagún|es|Revueltas burguesas de Sahagún}} in Spain.{{cite book |first=Reyna |last=Pastor de Togneri |author-link=:es:Reyna Pastor |title=Conflictos sociales y estancamiento económico en la España medieval |language=es |trans-title=Social conflicts and economic stagnation in medieval Spain |publisher=Editorial Ariel |date=1973}}{{cite book |first=José Luis |last=Martín |title=Historia de España |language=es |trans-title=History of Spain (A society at war) |volume=4 - Una sociedad en guerra |series=Historia 16}}

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.{{r|Davidson, 2012}}

File:Philip Dawe (attributed), The Bostonians Paying the Excise-man, or Tarring and Feathering (1774) - 02.jpg customs official tarred and feathered by the Sons of Liberty during the American Revolutionary War]]

• {{flagicon image|Flag of the Swabian League (3^2).svg}} German Peasants' War (1524–1525); also labelled by later historians as an early attempt at a bourgeois revolution{{cite book |last=Bak |first=Janos |chapter='The Peasant War in Germany' by Friedrich Engels – 125 years later |editor-last=Bak |editor-first=Janos |title=The German Peasant War of 1525 |publisher=Routledge |date=2022 |orig-date=1976 |isbn=978-1-00-319095-0 |doi=10.4324/9781003190950 |pages=93–99 |s2cid=241881702}}
• {{flagicon|Dutch Republic}} Eighty Years' War (1566–1648); also known as the Dutch revolution{{r|Eisenstein, 2010}}{{sfn|Hallas|1988|pp=17–20}}
• {{flagicon|England}} English Revolution (1640–1660){{r|Eisenstein, 2010}}{{sfn|Callinicos|1989|pp=113–171}}{{r|Davidson, 2012}}
• {{flagicon|United States|1777}} American Revolution (1765–1783){{r|Eisenstein, 2010}}{{r|Davidson, 2012}}
• {{flagicon|France|1790}} French Revolution (1789–1799){{harvp|Heller|2006|loc=Preface p. ix}}; {{harvp|Callinicos|1989|pp=113–171}}; {{harvp|Sewell|1994|loc=Introduction pp. 22–23}}{{r|Eisenstein, 2010}}
• {{Flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland.svg}} Irish Rebellion of 1798{{cite web |last=Faulkner |first=Neil |author-link=Neil Faulkner (archaeologist) |date=24 October 2011 |title=A Marxist History of the World part 49: The French Revolution – Themidor, Directory and Napoleon |url=https://www.counterfire.org/article/a-marxist-history-of-the-world-part-49-the-french-revolution-themidor-directory-and-napoleon/ |website=Counterfire |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231221122217/https://www.counterfire.org/article/a-marxist-history-of-the-world-part-49-the-french-revolution-themidor-directory-and-napoleon/ |archive-date=21 December 2023}}

File:An episode in the revolutionary war in China, 1911 - the battle at the Ta-ping gate at Nanking. Wellcome L0040002.jpg 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.{{r|Davidson, 2012}}

• {{flagicon image|Greek Revolution flag.svg}} Greek Revolution (1821–1829){{cite book |last=Lutsky |first=Vladimir |author-link=Vladimir Borisovich Lutsky |date=1969 |title=Modern History of the Arab Countries |chapter=VII The Conquest of the East Sudan by Mohammed Ali. The Expedition to Morea |chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/subject/arab-world/lutsky/ch07.htm#s2 |via=Marxists Internet Archive}}
• {{flagicon|France|1814}} July Revolution (1830){{sfn|Modern World History Writing Group|1973a|p=172}}
• {{flagicon|France|1830}} February Revolution (1848){{sfn|Modern World History Writing Group|1973a|p=233}}{{sfn|Klíma|1986|pp=74–75}}
• {{flagicon image|Wappen Deutscher Bund.svg}} German revolutions of 1848–1849{{harvp|Modern World History Writing Group|1973a|p=255}}; {{harvp|Callinicos|1989|pp=113–171}}; {{harvp|Hallas|1988|pp=17–20}}; {{harvp|Klíma|1986|pp=74–75}}
• {{flagicon image|Bandiera dello Stato della Sicilia (28.04.1848 - 15.05.1849).PNG}} Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states{{sfn|Modern World History Writing Group|1973a}}{{sfn|Klíma|1986|pp=74–75}}
• {{flagicon|Hungary|1849}} Hungarian Revolution of 1848{{sfn|Modern World History Writing Group|1973a}}{{sfn|Klíma|1986|p=77}}
• {{flagicon image|Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg}} Risorgimento (1848–1871){{sfn|Post|2019|pp=165–166}}
• {{flagicon|North German Confederation}} Unification of Germany (1866–1871){{sfn|Post|2019|pp=165–166}}
• {{flagicon|United States|1861}} American Civil War (1861–1865){{cite web |last=Faulkner |first=Neil |author-link=Neil Faulkner (archaeologist) |date=8 January 2012 |title=A Marxist History of the World part 57: The American Civil War |url=https://www.counterfire.org/article/a-marxist-history-of-the-world-part-57-the-american-civil-war/ |website=Counterfire |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231221122214/https://www.counterfire.org/article/a-marxist-history-of-the-world-part-57-the-american-civil-war/ |archive-date=21 December 2023}}
• {{flagicon|Imperial Court in Kyoto}} Japanese Revolution (1868–1869){{cite web |last=Faulkner |first=Neil |author-link=Neil Faulkner (archaeologist) |date=18 January 2012 |title=A Marxist History of the World part 58: The Meiji Restoration |url=https://www.counterfire.org/article/a-marxist-history-of-the-world-part-58-the-meiji-restoration/ |website=Counterfire |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231221122214/https://www.counterfire.org/article/a-marxist-history-of-the-world-part-58-the-meiji-restoration/ |archive-date=21 December 2023}}{{sfn|Post|2019|pp=165–166}}
• {{flagicon|Philippines|1899}} Philippine Revolution (1896–1898){{sfn|Modern World History Writing Group|1973b|p=150}}
• {{flagicon|Russia|1896}} 1905 Russian Revolution (1905–1907){{sfn|Modern World History Writing Group|1973b|p=130}}{{r|Davidson, 2012}}
• {{flagicon|Qajar Iran|1906}} Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911){{sfn|Modern World History Writing Group|1973b|p=152}}
• {{flagicon|Ottoman Empire|1844}} Young Turk Revolution (1908){{sfn|Modern World History Writing Group|1973b|p=160}}
• {{flagicon|China|1889}} Chinese revolution of 1911 (1911–1912){{cite book |last1=Zhang |first1=Yuchun |last2=Ma |first2=Zhenwen |title=简明中国近代史 |language=zh |trans-title=A Concise Modern History of China |publisher=Liaoning People's Publishing House |date=1976 |page=301}}{{r|Davidson, 2012}}
• {{flagicon|Mexico|1893}} Mexican Revolution (1910–1917){{sfn|Modern World History Writing Group|1973b|p=224}}
• {{flagicon|Russia|1896}} February Revolution (1917); also called a "bourgeois-democratic revolution" in Soviet historiography{{cite web |url=https://history.ru/297105 |script-title=ru:История Всесоюзной коммунистической партии (большевиков). Краткий курс |title=Istoriya Vsesoyuznoy kommunisticheskoy partii (bol'shevikov). Kratkiy kurs |language=ru |trans-title=History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Short course |editor=Commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) |date=1938 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412142256/https://history.ru/297105 |archive-date=12 April 2023}}{{cite book |author-link=:ru:Генкина, Эсфирь Борисовна |last=Genkina |first=Esfir Borisovna |script-title=ru:Февральский переворот // Очерки по истории Октябрьской революции |title=Fevral'skiy perevorot // Ocherki po istorii Oktyabr'skoy revolyutsii |language=ru |trans-title=The February coup // Essays on the history of the October Revolution |editor-link=:ru:Покровский, Михаил Николаевич |editor-last=Pokrovsky |editor-first=Mikhail Nikolaevich |volume=2 |date=1927}}
• {{flagicon image|Flag of China (1912–1928).svg}}/{{flagicon image|Flag of the Republic of China.svg}} Chinese revolution (1927–1949){{sfn|Post|2019|pp=160–163}}
• {{flagicon image|Flag of Iran.svg}} Iranian Revolution (1978–1979); according to Enver Hoxha{{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-link=Enver Hoxha |date=1984 |title=Reflections on the Middle East |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/reflections_on_the_middle_east.pdf |pages=254, 265–266 |quote=(254) From information we receive and the reports of news agencies which I read regularly, it is clear that regardless of the Islamic slogans which are used to show that the religious spirit is allegedly predominant in it, the Iranian revolution is an anti-feudal and anti-imperialist popular revolution. ... (265–266) The control of the situation has not slipped out of Khomeini's hands, but with the overthrow of the monarchy of the Pahlavis, with the liquidation of this mediaeval monarchy, the evolution in Iran has brought to the fore elements more organized, more radical, more progressive than Khomeini, elements who are operating for a democratic, bourgeois Iran with considerable rights. But we shall see to what extent they will achieve this aim. |via=Marxists Internet Archive}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin|indent=yes|30em}}

• {{cite book |editor1-last=Blackbourn |editor1-first=David |editor1-link=David Blackbourn |editor2-last=Eley |editor2-first=Geoff |editor2-link=Geoff Eley |title=The Peculiarities of German History: Bourgeois Society and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Germany |date=12 December 1984 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191694943 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/5374 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198730583.001.0001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230413095642/https://academic.oup.com/book/5374?login=false |archive-date=13 April 2023}}
• {{cite journal |last=Callinicos |first=Alex |author-link=Alex Callinicos |title=Bourgeois Revolutions and Historical Materialism |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/callinicos/1989/xx/bourrev.html |date=Summer 1989 |journal=International Socialism |volume=2 |number=43 |pages=113–171 |via=Marxists Internet Archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816031623/https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/callinicos/1989/xx/bourrev.html |archive-date=16 August 2021}}
• {{cite book |last=Calvert |first=Peter |title=Revolution and Counter-Revolution |series=Concepts in the Social Sciences |publisher=Open University Press |date=1990 |isbn=0-335-15397-6}}
• {{cite book |last=Eisenstein |first=Hester |title=Feminism Seduced: How Global Elites Use Women's Labor and Ideas to Exploit the World |date=13 May 2010 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781594516603}}
• {{cite magazine |last=Hallas |first=Duncan |author-link=Duncan Hallas |title=The Bourgeois Revolution |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/hallas/works/1988/01/bourgrev.htm |date=January 1988 |magazine=Socialist Review |number=105 |pages=17–20 |publisher=Socialist Workers Party |via=Marxists Internet Archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816131240/https://www.marxists.org/archive/hallas/works/1988/01/bourgrev.htm |archive-date=16 August 2021}}
• {{cite book |last=Heller |first=Henry |title=The Bourgeois Revolution in France 1789–1815 |publisher=Berghahn Books |date=2006 |isbn=978-1-84545-650-4 |jstor=j.ctt9qdczd}}
• {{cite journal |last=Hobsbawm |first=E. J. |author-link=Eric Hobsbawm |date=Spring 1989 |title=The Making of a "Bourgeois Revolution" |journal=Social Research |volume=56 |number=1 |pages=5–31 |publisher=The New School |jstor=40970532}}
• {{cite dictionary |editor1-last=Johnson |editor1-first=Elliott |editor2-last=Walker |editor2-first=David |editor3-last=Gray |editor3-first=Daniel |title=Democracy |dictionary=Historical Dictionary of Marxism |edition=2nd |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham; Boulder; New York; London |pages=118 |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-4422-3798-8}}
• {{cite book |last=Klíma |first=Arnošt |author-link=Arnošt Klíma |chapter=4 - The bourgeois revolution of 1848–9 in Central Europe |title=Revolution in History |editor1-last=Porter |editor1-first=Roy |editor1-link=Roy Porter |editor2-last=Teich |editor2-first=Mikuláš |editor2-link=Mikuláš Teich |date=1986 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=74–100 |isbn=9781316256961 |doi=10.1017/CBO9781316256961}}
• {{cite book |last1=Marx |first1=Karl |author1-link=Karl Marx |last2=Engels |first2=Friedrich |author2-link=Friedrich Engels |title={{ill|Marx-Engels-Werke|de}} |publisher={{ill|Karl Dietz Verlag Berlin|de}} |date=1956}}
• {{cite book |author=Modern World History Writing Group |title=世界近代史 |language=zh |trans-title=Book of Modern World History |volume=I |editor=Shanghai Normal University |publisher=Shanghai People's Press |date=June 1973a}}
• {{cite book |author=Modern World History Writing Group |title=世界近代史 |language=zh |trans-title=Book of Modern World History |volume=II |editor=Shanghai Normal University |publisher=Shanghai People's Press |date=June 1973b}}
• {{cite journal |last=Post |first=Charles |title=How Capitalist Were the 'Bourgeois Revolutions'? |journal=Historical Materialism |date=2019 |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=157–190 |publisher=Brill |doi=10.1163/1569206X-12341528 |s2cid=149303334 |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/27/3/article-p157_9.xml?language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230220080229/https://brill.com/abstract/journals/hima/27/3/article-p157_9.xml?language=en |archive-date=20 February 2023}}
• {{cite book |last=Sewell |first=William H. |author-link=William H. Sewell Jr. |title=A Rhetoric of Bourgeois Revolution: The Abbe Sieyes and What is the Third Estate? |date=December 1994 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0822315384}}

{{refend}}

{{Marxist and communist phraseology}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Marxist terminology

Category:Revolution terminology

Category:Revolutions by type

Category:Bourgeoisie