History of revolutions

[immortalmack]

Has the Academia or Intelligencias ever succeeded or attempted coups in the history of any country or has it aways been the grass roots, middle class and militaries?

[FranG]

Usually secret ops mission orchestrated at a high level but implemented at the grassroots level.

[Dr. Haight]

Good question.

I think I could argue that the American Revolution was a case of a well read, overly educated, and well bred group taking total control of the government.

[Jasz]

Has the Academia or Intelligencias ever succeeded or attempted coups in the history of any country or has it aways been the grass roots, middle class and militaries?

to my knowledge, never the intelligencia alone without at least implicit support by lower/ middle/ military

key scholars on revolution:

Barrington Moore
Theda Skocpol
Charles Tilly

[Dr. Haight]

to my knowledge, never the intelligencia alone without at least implicit support by lower/ middle/ military"Alone," is the key word in that statement. If that is the condition, then the anwer is a big "NO."

[Jasz]

i think the iranian revolution in 1979 was a good example of a revolution where (in this case religious) intelligentia played a key role. it was a new kind of revolution with the spiritual leader ousted and out of the country but connecting with "the people" by use of speeches on cassette tapes.

[floid]

Revolutions differ little from other human endeavors.

Misinformed cowards (the intelligentsia) scheme to dupe the cluelessly courageous into doing the dirty work while the are poised to gather in the spoils and oversee the writing of their own praises into the annals of lying.

[Madrigal]

*is reminded of why she never starts threads about important things such as revolution*

[Jasz]

*is reminded of why she never starts threads about important things such as revolution*

how would you contribute? i am sure you have an opinion on this

[OliverH]

Has the Academia or Intelligencias ever succeeded or attempted coups in the history of any country or has it aways been the grass roots, middle class and militaries?

Actually, revolutions to me rarely seem to be grass roots events. Usually, the so-called downtrodden masses are too busy to get the food on the table to actually contemplate about their dissatisfaction with the overall situation. Even the Russian revolution was brought about by intelligentsia. However, in order to actually get away with a revolution, you need enough masses to overwhelm the powers that be. So those revolutions that succeed are unlikely to be done by intelligentsia alone.

I am also not quite sure where you see "academia vs. middle class". Historically, aside from the most notable professors, a lot of academia was very much middle-class. A lot of the leaders of the failed 1848 revolution in Germany were lawyers, professors and students.

[immortalmack]

middle class usually (in my mind) are the business owners who are somewhat politically awake and also have the means to finance public revolts as well as hire mercenaries.