The Structure and Role of the Pre-Revolutionary State in France, China, and Russia
Griffin Weider Professor Christensen Comparative Revolutions November 30, 2012
The Structure and Role of the Pre-Revolutionary State in France, China, and Russia There are numerous causal factors to consider when analyzing revolutions, and the State is arguably one of the most significant. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting the ways in which the structure and role of the pre-revolutionary state affected the nature of the revolutions in France, Russia, and China. When the state collapsed in all three of the cases, the old regimes were attempting to modernize in response to unrest and corruption, and all were caught up in an international systemic crisis at the time. However differences can be found in the way they went about modernization and reform, the ways and varying degrees to which unrest and external pressures affected the states, and the consequences of the actions – or failure to act – on the part of the states. Pre-revolutionary France was an absolutist state: the king of France, in the words of Louis XIV, was the state. However tradition and privileges were central in this system, giving authority to trades and guilds, judges and tax collectors, and the Church; furthermore, certain cities had individual exemptions and each province had privileges as well. To make these various – and often conflicting – arrangements more complicated, the government had limited organizational capacity when it came to travel and communications. The primary focuses of the government were military and foreign policy, and they paid for these through an extensive taxation system. By the end of the eighteenth century, the state was compromised by overwhelming fiscal burdens, mainly due to its repeated voluntary participation in foreign wars. Because the collection of taxes was not entirely under the control of the state, the government attempted to streamline the entire tax system, however this proved unsuccessful
The Structure and Role of the Pre-Revolutionary State in France, China, and Russia There are numerous causal factors to consider when analyzing revolutions, and the State is arguably one of the most significant. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting the ways in which the structure and role of the pre-revolutionary state affected the nature of the revolutions in France, Russia, and China. When the state collapsed in all three of the cases, the old regimes were attempting to modernize in response to unrest and corruption, and all were caught up in an international systemic crisis at the time. However differences can be found in the way they went about modernization and reform, the ways and varying degrees to which unrest and external pressures affected the states, and the consequences of the actions – or failure to act – on the part of the states. Pre-revolutionary France was an absolutist state: the king of France, in the words of Louis XIV, was the state. However tradition and privileges were central in this system, giving authority to trades and guilds, judges and tax collectors, and the Church; furthermore, certain cities had individual exemptions and each province had privileges as well. To make these various – and often conflicting – arrangements more complicated, the government had limited organizational capacity when it came to travel and communications. The primary focuses of the government were military and foreign policy, and they paid for these through an extensive taxation system. By the end of the eighteenth century, the state was compromised by overwhelming fiscal burdens, mainly due to its repeated voluntary participation in foreign wars. Because the collection of taxes was not entirely under the control of the state, the government attempted to streamline the entire tax system, however this proved unsuccessful