The political process is a set of successive events in the activities of policy subjects, which are formed under the influence of internal and external factors. Their specificity is their focus on the conquest, use and retention of power.
Revolution as a kind of political process
The following types of political processes can be distinguished: they are revolution, reform and counter-revolution. Sometimes an armed coup is also singled out separately.
A revolution is a fundamental transformation of the social order. As a result, a new political system is being created. A revolution always arises on a certain social basis and is the result of deep contradictions in society or social stratification. At the same time, the current political elite does not accept changes and does not take any steps to improve the life of the people.
Another sign of a revolution is that it is not carried out from above by the current political elites. The initiative comes from the people. As a result of the revolution, the ruling classes and elites lose their position of power.
A revolution differs from an armed coup in that it is accompanied by a change in the social system. For example, a monarchy for a republic. An armed coup is usually carried out in the interests of political elites. According to this approach, the so-called revolutions in Ukraine, Georgia were not revolutions in essence, but were only an armed coup.
The revolution is accompanied by a change in the social system. For example, the change of the monarchy to the republic. The coup does not imply a change in the social order. That is, if there are "revolutions" in Ukraine (2004), Georgia, or elsewhere, they are, in terms of terminology, political upheavals.
But the February revolution of 1917 in the Russian Empire is a revolution, because the country passed from a monarchy to a republic. Revolutions presuppose a new qualitative leap in the development of society.
Revolutions are often accompanied by serious costs to society. In particular, economic crises and human casualties, internal struggle between the opposition. Therefore, the society that often arises as a result of revolutionary transformations differs significantly from the original ideal model. This gives rise to groups of people who seek to overthrow the ruling elite and restore the old order. The reverse process is called counter-revolution. With its success, the restoration of the previous order takes place. The difference between revolutions is that they do not lead to a re-creation of the situation that existed before the previous revolution.
Reforms are a gradual transformation of the socio-political structure. Their success depends on their timeliness, public support and public consensus on their content. Reforms can be radical and evolutionary. Their essential difference from revolutionary transformations is the sequence and phasing of actions. The difference between reform and revolution is also that it does not affect the basic foundations of society.
Types of revolutions
A revolution is a radical transformation in any area of human activity. The term was originally used in astrology. Sometimes the term revolution is mistakenly used in relation to phenomena that do not have signs of revolution. For example, the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" in China in 1966-1976, which was essentially a campaign to eliminate political opponents. Whereas the period of "Perestroika", which led to the revolutionary transformation of the social system, is called reforms.
There are political and social revolutions. Social ones lead to changes in the social system, while political ones change one political regime for another.
Marxism distinguishes between bourgeois and socialist revolutions. The former presuppose the replacement of feudalism by capitalism. Examples include the Great French Revolution, the English Revolution of the 17th century, and the American Colonial War of Independence. If the result of a bourgeois revolution is changes exclusively in the economic sphere, and in the political one it is still impossible to eradicate feudalism, this becomes the sources of the emergence of bourgeois-democratic revolutions. For example, the revolution of 1905, the revolution in China in 1924-27, the revolutions of 1848 and 1871 in France.
The socialist revolution aims at the transition from capitalism to socialism. A number of researchers refer to these as the October Revolution of 1919, the revolution in Eastern Europe in the 1940s, and the Cuban Revolution. But even among the Marxists there are those who deny their socialist character.
National liberation revolutions, in which countries are liberated from colonial dependence, are a separate class. For example, the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, the Iraqi Revolution of 1958, the wars of independence in Latin America in the 19th century.
In modern history, such a type of transformation as the "Velvet Revolutions" has appeared. Their result in 1989-1991 was the elimination of the Soviet political regime in Eastern Europe and Mongolia. On the one hand, they fully meet the criteria of the revolution, since led to a change in the political system. However, they were often carried out under the leadership of the incumbent elites, who only strengthened their positions.
