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 state.[1][2] In colonised or subjugated countries, bourgeois revolutions often take the form of a war of national independence. The English, French, and American revolutions are considered the archetypal bourgeois revolutions,[3] 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".[4]

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According to one version of the two-stage theory, bourgeois revolution was asserted to be a necessary step in the move toward socialism. 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. 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.[5]

Other theories describe the evolution of the bourgeoisie as not needing a revolution. The German bourgeoisie during the 1848 revolution did not strive to take command of the political effort and instead sided with the crown. Neil Davidson attributes their behaviour to the late development of capitalist relations and uses this as the model for the evolution of the bourgeoisie.[6]

References
  1. "Bourgeois Revolution". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  2. Johnson, Elliott; Walker, David; Gray, Daniel, eds. (2014). "Democracy". Historical Dictionary of Marxism (2nd ed.). Lanham; Boulder; New York; London: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 118. ISBN 978-1-4422-3798-8.
  3. Eisenstein, Hester (13 May 2010). Feminism Seduced: How Global Elites Use Women's Labor and Ideas to Exploit the World. Routledge. p. 64. ISBN 9781594516603., 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. 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.
  5. "Glossary of Terms: St". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  6. 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.
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