Week 10: Violent and Non-Violent Revolution

Hi all,

This week, we will begin to discuss different kinds of revolution and revolt. When we speak about “revolution” we typically have in mind a violent process of regime change. But the events that people refer to as “revolutions” vary substantially in how much violence they involve; indeed, non-violent action has been used to overthrow quite repressive regimes. How do revolutions differ? When do people resort to violence, and when do they prefer non-violence to overthrow oppressive regimes? Are “non-violent” revolutions more or less effective?

We had a regime change simulation game scheduled for last week, but (depending on your interest) I’ve decided to play the game in tutorials. The game is fun – it requires some of you to play President for Life or Sister Leader of the Revolution, or to undermine such people. If there aren’t enough people in tutorials to play it, we might do it on Friday, time permitting, in lecture.

Regime Classification Project: Next Steps

I have put a “template” for the final essay (due on 8 June) in the folder with the lecture notes. Please take a look at it here, and let me know if you have any problems or questions. Note that you can only begin writing part of the essay; other parts will require the class to finish inputting data and me doing some analysis on it.

Remember to begin entering information for your country online on BB. (The deadline is the 22, but it will be easier for me to “pull” the data you entered and summarize it for you the earlier people do this). The most important bit is the justification of your answers; make sure you write that in some external document so that you don’t lose your work if you accidentally “submit” the form before you are done.

Grades

Thanks to those of you who submitted an EBP last week. Grades are now available for EBPs (out of 10), along with rubric scores and comments by me.

Everyone who submitted something to the blog (including an EBP) should also get a regular blog grade for last week (out of 2). Almost anything course-related should earn 1 point; “exceptional” contributions may earn 2 points. You can accumulate up to 10 points this way. If you contributed something last week but did not receive a regular contribution grade, please let me know; it’s possible that I may have missed you.

Important deadlines!

People with IDs ending in 2 or 7 have EBPs due this week on violent and non-violent revolution (19 and 22 May). Check your specific instructions here.

People with IDs ending in 1 or 8 have EBPs due next week on contentious politics and its diffusion (26 and 29 May). Check your specific instructions here.