The Cuban Revolution: The Road to Power

Abstract

The Prevalent Theory of Revolution—After Restricting the Dimensions of the phenomenon under study to only one aspect, that ending with the seizure of power—distinguishes between preconditions and precipitants. Preconditions are “the crucial concern of men of affairs….” Precipitants, “by their very nature,” are ephemeral phenomena and cannot be anticipated. The conservative bias of this elaboration is obvious. By definition revolution is subsumed into the category of “civil strife,” thus eliminating all those phases of the process potentially as creative as the one following the seizure of power. Theoretical relevance, then, is assigned only to those elements of the phenomenon susceptible of preventive treatment—the preconditions. Finally, the events able to unleash the revolutionary process are relegated to the conditions of accidents—“they only happen”—and, consequently, are disregarded.