Single Idea 23867

[catalogued under 24. Political Theory / C. Ruling a State / 4. Changing the State / c. Revolution]

Full Idea

There is no real break in continuity after a bloody struggle for regime change; for the victory just sanctions forces that before the struggle were the decisive factor in community life, patterns which were replacing those of the declining regime.

Gist of Idea

After a bloody revolution the group which already had the power comes to the fore

Source

Simone Weil (Reflections on Liberty and Social Oppression [1934], p.73)

Book Reference

Weil,Simone: 'Oppression and Liberty' [Routledge 1955], p.73


A Reaction

[from Marx] I assume she has in mind the French Revolution, and perhaps the Russian Revolution, though in the latter the new bourgeois leaders also got swept away. So revolutions are not nearly as dramatic as they appear to be.

Related Idea

Idea 23873 Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous [Weil]