Bourgeois revolution

Bourgeois revolution is a term used in Marxist theory to refer to a social revolution that aims to destroy a feudal system or its vestiges, establish the rule of the bourgeoisie, and create a bourgeois (capitalist) state.^[1][2] In colonised or subjugated countries, bourgeois revolutions often take the form of a war of national independence. The Dutch, English, American, and French revolutions are considered the archetypal bourgeois revolutions,^[3][4] in that they attempted to clear away the remnants of the medieval feudal system, so as to pave the way for the rise of capitalism.^[1] The term is usually used in contrast to "proletarian revolution", and is also sometimes called a "bourgeois-democratic revolution".^[5][6]

Theories of bourgeois revolution

 

Starting in the late 18th century, the Bildungsbürger ("educated bourgeoise") class defined itself more on the basis of education than material possessions and thus great emphasis was laid upon the education of children.

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.^[7][8] In this view, countries that had preserved their feudal structure, like Russia, would have to establish capitalism via a bourgeois revolution before being able to wage a proletarian revolution.^[9][10] At the time of the Russian Revolution, the Mensheviks asserted this theory, arguing that a revolution led by bourgeoisie was necessary to modernise society, establish basic freedoms, and overcome feudalism, which would establish the conditions necessary for socialism.^[9] This view is prominent in Marxist-Leninist analysis.^[11][12]

Political sociologist Barrington Moore Jr. identified 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.^[13]

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".^[6][14][15] 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.^[16]

Other theories describe the evolution of the bourgeoisie as not needing a revolution.^[17] The German bourgeoisie during the 1848 revolution did not strive to take command of the political effort and instead sided with the crown.^[18][19] Davidson attributes their behaviour to the late development of capitalist relations and uses this as the model for the evolution of the bourgeoisie.^[20]

Left communists often view the revolutions leading to communist states in the twentieth century as "bourgeois revolutions".^[21][22]

The goals of the bourgeois revolution

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).^[23][24]
• The constitution of the state on the basis of popular sovereignty (the rule of law is based on a constitution^[25] adopted by the people).
• Bourgeois rule^[26] if possible in the form of a democratic republic^[27][28] (which, however, already found its complement in tyranny in antiquity).^[29]
• The abolition of serfdom, and the formation of free wage workers instead.^[30][31]
• The separation of producers from the means of production in primitive accumulation.^[32]
• The abolition of the guilds and freedom of investment.^[30]
• The free development of the productive forces until they are ripe for social revolution.

Bourgeois revolutions in history

Bourgeois revolutions in the middle ages

Although with much less diffusion, some social movements of the European Late Middle Ages have also 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,^[33] and Bourgeois revolts of Sahagún [es] in Spain.^[34][35]

Bourgeois revolutions in the early modern period

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.^[6]

 

A Loyalist customs official tarred and feathered by the Sons of Liberty, during the American Revolutionary War.

•   German Peasants' War (1524–1525) (it has been labelled by later historians as an early attempt at a bourgeois revolution)^[36]
•   Eighty Years' War, also known as the Dutch revolution, (1566–1648)^[3][37]
•   English Revolution (1640–1660)^[3][4][6]
•   American Revolution (1765–1783)^[3][6]
•   French Revolution (1789–1799)^[38][3]
•   Irish Rebellion of 1798^[39]

Bourgeois revolutions in the late modern period

 

1911 battle at Ta-ping gate, Nanking, during the Chinese revolution of 1911. 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.^[6]

•   July Revolution (1830)^[40]
•   February Revolution (1848)^[41][42]
•   German revolutions of 1848–1849^[43]
•   Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states^[44][42]
•   Hungarian Revolution of 1848^[44][45]
•   Risorgimento (1848–1871)^[46]
•   Unification of Germany (1866–1871)^[46]
•   American Civil War (1861–1865)^[47]
•   Japanese Revolution (1868–1869)^[48][46]
•   Philippine Revolution (1896–1898)^[49]
•   1905 Russian Revolution (1905–1907)^[50][6]
•   Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911)^[51]
•   Young Turk Revolution (1908)^[52]
•   Chinese revolution of 1911 (1911–1912)^[53][6]
•   Mexican Revolution (1910–1917)^[54]
•   February Revolution (1917) (called a "bourgeois-democratic revolution" in Soviet historiography)^[55][56]
•  /  Chinese revolution (1925–1953)^[57][21]

References

1. . TheFreeDictionary.com. Archived from the original on 21 September 2022. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
2. Johnson, Walker & Gray (2014), p. 118; Calvert (1990), pp. 9–10; Hobsbawm (1989), pp. 11–12
3. Eisenstein (2010), p. 64, quoted in Davidson, Neil (2012). "From Society to Politics; From Event to Process". How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions?. Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books. pp. 381–382. ISBN 978-1-60846-067-0.
4. Callinicos 1989, pp. 113–171.
5. Wilczynski, Jozef, ed. (1981). "Bourgeois Revolution". An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Marxism, Socialism and Communism. London: Macmillan Press. p. 48. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-05806-8. ISBN 978-1-349-05806-8.
6. Davidson, Neil (May 2012). . International Socialist Review. No. 83. Center For Economic Research and Social Change. Archived from the original on 27 December 2021.
7. Post 2019, pp. 157–158.
8. Plekhanov, Georgi (1949) [1895]. . Archived from the original on 1 September 2018 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
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16. Post 2019, pp. 160–161.
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19. Blackbourn, David. . pp. 206–237. Archived from the original on 21 February 2023. in Blackbourn & Eley (1984)
20. Davidson, Neil (2012). "Marx and Engels (2) 1847–52". How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions?. Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-60846-067-0. 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.
21. . Communist Program (3). May 1977. Archived from the original on 10 October 2023 – via International Library of the Communist Left.
22. Post 2019, pp. 164–165.
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24. Marx & Engels 1956, 16, p. 157.
25. Marx & Engels 1956, 37, p. 463.
26. Marx & Engels 1956, 8, p. 196.
27. Marx & Engels 1956, 22, pp. 235–236.
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30. Marx & Engels 1956, 17, p. 592.
31. Heller 2006, Introduction pp. 2–4.
32. Marx & Engels 1956, 23, pp. 741–761.
33. Mollat, Michel [in French]; Wolff, Philippe [in French] (1970). Ongles bleus, jacques et ciompi - les révolutions populaires en Europe aux XIVe et XVe siècles [Ongles bleus, Jacquerie and Ciompi - popular revolutions in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries] (in French). Calmann-Lévy.
34. Pastor de Togneri, Reyna [in Spanish] (1973). Conflictos sociales y estancamiento económico en la España medieval [Social conflicts and economic stagnation in medieval Spain] (in Spanish). Editorial Ariel.
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37. Hallas 1988, pp. 17–20.
38. Heller (2006), Preface p. ix; Callinicos (1989), pp. 113–171; Sewell (1994), Introduction pp. 22–23
39. Faulkner, Neil (24 October 2011). . Counterfire. Archived from the original on 21 December 2023.
40. Modern World History Writing Group 1973a, p. 172.
41. Modern World History Writing Group 1973a, p. 233.
42. Klíma 1986, pp. 74–75.
43. Modern World History Writing Group (1973a), p. 255; Callinicos (1989), pp. 113–171; Hallas (1988), pp. 17–20; Klíma (1986), pp. 74–75
44. Modern World History Writing Group 1973a.
45. Klíma 1986, p. 77.
46. Post 2019, pp. 165–166.
47. Faulkner, Neil (8 January 2012). . Counterfire. Archived from the original on 21 December 2023.
48. Faulkner, Neil (18 January 2012). . Counterfire. Archived from the original on 21 December 2023.
49. Modern World History Writing Group 1973b, p. 150.
50. Modern World History Writing Group 1973b, p. 130.
51. Modern World History Writing Group 1973b, p. 152.
52. Modern World History Writing Group 1973b, p. 160.
53. Zhang, Yuchun; Ma, Zhenwen (1976). 简明中国近代史 [A Concise Modern History of China] (in Chinese). Liaoning People's Publishing House. p. 301.
54. Modern World History Writing Group 1973b, p. 224.
55. Commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), ed. (1938). [History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Short course] (in Russian). Archived from the original on 12 April 2023.
56. Genkina, Esfir Borisovna [in Russian] (1927). Pokrovsky, Mikhail Nikolaevich [in Russian] (ed.). Fevral'skiy perevorot // Ocherki po istorii Oktyabr'skoy revolyutsii Февральский переворот // Очерки по истории Октябрьской революции [The February coup // Essays on the history of the October Revolution] (in Russian). Vol. 2.
57. Post 2019, pp. 160–163.

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