The Background Causes of Revolution in 1848

Abstract

An examination of the causes of revolution involves its own particular problems. The relevant factors include socioeconomic structures; the impact of shorter term economic circumstances; the existence of political opposition, and the capacity of governments to deal with it. Revolution — or indeed its absence — can only be understood within the context of particular social and political systems. Moreover, although the classification of causal variables is a necessary analytical tool, the distinctions made are all, to some degree, arbitrary and artificial. Weighting the significance of each is extremely difficult and the efforts of political scientists to develop explanatory theories have led, all too often, to tautology and oversimplification. It might help, to begin with, to distinguish between the background factors — the preconditions — and the actual precipitants of revolutionary action. In this it is important to remember that very few people actually wanted or expected revolution. Indeed, for the vast majority of politically active people the memory and myths of 1789 served as a great deterrent to overstepping the bounds of ‘normal’ political activity.