No Other Way Out
States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945–1991

Explains emergence of revolutionary movements in more than a dozen countries during Cold War era.

Jeff Goodwin (Author)

9780521629485, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 June 2001

428 pages, 7 b/w illus. 17 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm, 0.637 kg

'Jeff Goodwin's No Other Way Out is an outstanding contribution to the sociology of revolutions. It goes beyond the work of his mentor, Theda Skocpol, and will have a profound impact on the literature for years to come.' Misagh Parsa, Dartmouth College (Electronic newsletter of the ECPR-SG on Extremism and Democracy)

No Other Way Out provides a powerful explanation for the emergence of popular revolutionary movements, and the occurrence of actual revolutions, during the Cold War era. This sweeping study ranges from Southeast Asia in the 1940s and 1950s to Central America in the 1970s and 1980s and Eastern Europe in 1989. Following in the 'state-centered' tradition of Theda Skocpol's States and Social Revolutions and Jack Goldstone's Revolutions and Rebellion in the Early Modern World, Goodwin demonstrates how the actions of specific types of authoritarian regimes unwittingly channeled popular resistance into radical and often violent directions. Revolution became the 'only way out', to use Trotsky's formulation, for the opponents of these intransigent regimes. By comparing the historical trajectories of more than a dozen countries, Goodwin also shows how revolutionaries were sometimes able to create, and not simply exploit, opportunities for seizing state power.

Figures, tables and maps
Abbreviations and acronyms
Preface and acknowledgments
Part I. Introduction: 1. Comparing revolutionary movements
2. The state-centered perspective on revolutions: strengths and limitations
Part II. Southeast Asia: Chronology for Southeast Asia
3. The formation of revolutionary movements in Southeast Asia
4. The only domino: the Vietnamese revolution in comparative perspective
Part III. Central America: Chronology for Central America
5. The formation of revolutionary movements in Central America
6. Not-so-inevitable revolutions: the political trajectory of revolutionary movements in Central America
Part IV. Further Comparisons and Theoretical Elaborations: 7. Between success and failure: persistent insurgencies
Chronology for Eastern Europe
8. 'Refolution' and rebellion in Eastern Europe, 1989
9. Conclusion: generalizations and prognostication
Annotated bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Revolutionary groups & movements [JPWQ], Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions [HBTV], Regional studies [GTB]