Revolution from above

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (November 2006)

A revolution from above is a drastic change in an area of public life spearheaded by a group of people in power but not in touch with the population they govern. Due to this, the drastic change has a greater probability of failure. An example of a revolution from above is the creation of a parliamentary monarchy in Germany in 1918 by suggestion of the German army generals. A notable example of a "Revolution From Above" is Stalin's control of the Soviet Union in the 20th century. Stalin reclaimed private property and forced collective agricultural labor on the populace in an effort to "fast-forward" through the social and economic structural changes necessary to make the Soviet Union a precondition for a purely Marxist society.