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The Revolution : A Public Seizure Of The State Essay

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Although there may be many associations with the term ‘revolution’ for many it can be agreed that revolutions tend to happen after people are unhappy with the way things are handled within an institution. To be more specific, it 's important to acknowledge that the definition according to Patrick H. O’Neil, writer of the Essentials of Comparative Politics, a revolution is a public seizure of the state in order to overturn the existing government of regime (O’Neil 2010: 214) . There are many examples of revolutions throughout history most notably the French Revolution (1789–1799), and the Russian Revolution of 1917 only to name a few, both varying on reason and outcome, all in all, both gaining the attention of the public and the state leading them to progressive change. The reason general revolutions occur in general is due to the fact that the public feels dissatisfaction with the way the government is typically handling a situation that ties in with the general public. Even with a minuscule amount of people, an uprising can occur as long as there is a strong sense of will in exercising civil rights in order to achieve change. Scholars believe that the contributors to revolutions are a lack of organization within the government; an example is the French Revolution which happened because people were starving, there was unequal taxation and there were too many privileges for rich people and that included the monarchy. In part, the enlightenment movement sparked the fire

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