The concept of revolutions of Jack Goldstone

In the article the author has briefly analyzed the theoretical approach to the study of the revolutions of the famous western explorer Jack Goldstone. Much attention is paid to the clarification of his concept, as well as to the classification of revolutions proposed by an American scientist. The author describes four generations of scholars who were studying this historical phenomenon. The first generation was in the 20's-50's of the 20th century (Kh. Arendt, P. Sorokin, K. Brinton). The second one was in the 50's-60's of the 20th century (T. Harr, S. Huntington). The third generation was in the 70's-80's of the 20th century (B. Moore, S. Eisenstadt, T. Skokpol). The fourth one has been from the 90's of the 20th century till present (R. Lachman, J. Goldstone). The causes of revolutions have been analyzed as well which, according to an American researcher, lead to an inevitable revolutionary outbreak in different countries. These are significant demographic changes, radical changes in the system of international relations, new methods of displacement or discrimination of individual social groups, the evolution of personalist regimes. The typology of revolutions developed by Jack Goldstone has been considered. In particular, these are social revolutions (French 1789-1799, Russian 1917- 1922, Chinese 1911-1949), anti-colonial revolutions (American 1776-1783, Indonesian 1945-1949, Algerian 1954- 1962), “democratizing revolutions” (European revolutions 1848-1849, “color revolutions”). J. Goldstone divides revolutionary leaders into two categories. The first category includes great dreamers (M. Robespierre, V. Lenin, Mao Zedong). The second one includes great organizers and leaders (J. Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, L. Trotsky). The author has also pointed out critical judgments about the theoretical concept of a foreign scientist.