The Two Revolutions

Author: Robert Nisbet

 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
 Contextualising the growth of sociology
 Major product of two revolutions – values of community,
moral authority, hierarchy, sacred Vs individual,
equality, rationality, techniques of organisation and
power
 Fundamental ideas of European sociology – Response to
the problem of order created at the beginning of 19th
century by the collapse of old regime under the impact of
industrialism and revolutionary democracy
 Old order rested on kinship, land, social class, religion,
local community and monarchy
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet

 Break-up of the old order set free these varied elements of power,
wealth and status

 The period of 1775 – 1850 – from social thought viewpoint –

richest period of word formation

 E. J. Hobsbawm – words are witnesses that speak louder than

documents

 Word invented or came into being or modified during this period

– industry, industrialist, democracy, class, middle class, ideology,
intellectual, rationalism, humanitarian, atomistic, masses,
commercialism, proletariat, collectivism, equalitarian, liberal,
conservative, scientist, utilitarian, bureaucracy, capitalism, liberal,
conservative, scientists, capitalism, etc
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Industrial Revolution

 Industrial Revolution is called a Revolution because it changed

society both significantly and rapidly

 Neolithic revolution took place in Stone age – people moved

from social systems based on hunting and gathering to much
more complex communities that depended on agriculture and
domestication of animals

 This led to permanent settlement and Urbanisation

Industrial Revolution brought a change from Neolithic

revolution to modern industrial society
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Factors triggering industrial revolution

 Improvements in transportation – mercantile developments (faster ships),

communication (printing)
 Great Britain – Social, political, Legal, Economic reasons responsible for Great
Britain being the nursery of Industrial revolution in Europe
 Stable political structure - monarchy
 Elementary Patent Law – On mechanical improvements
 State policy of Laissez Faire – helped Industrialists, Entrepreneurs,
Businessmen
 No arbitrary taxation or seizing of earnings
 All this encourage risk taking and investments
 Technological and Scientific Progresses
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Impact of Industrial revolution
1. Condition of Labour
 Rise of Working class
 Degradation of labourers, decline of the status of craftsmen
 The Capitalistic market economy put bargaining power in the hands of
owners of means of production
Marxian notion of Alienation
 Alienation from the product
 Alienation from production process
 Alienation from the fellow beings
 Alienation from species being
 Work is the fundamental fact of human life
 Through work human beings express themselves
 Product of work is outward manifestation of their inner self
 The modern industrial society with factory system of production and
extensive division of labour estranges the workers from their sphere of
work
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Impact of Industrial Revolution
2. Transformation of Property
 Property as intangible product owned by people
 Intellectual Property in its elementary form
 People could make money out of their “own”
original ideas, techniques, technology or
machine
 Share market – another example of
transformation of property
 Fragmentation of Land (French Revolution
triggered it in a big way)
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Impact of Industrial Revolution
3. Growth of cities
 Better standard of living
 More employment opportunities
 Rise of Individualism and freedom of choice
 Rapid urbanisation
 Expansion of towns and cities leading to
overpopulation
 Resultant scarcity of basic amenities
 Squalor, dirt, unhygienic state of working class areas
 Loss of community, feeling of isolation and loneliness
 Impersonal life style
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Impact of Industrial Revolution

4. Technology and 5. Factory System of Production

 Mass scale production
 Extensive division of labour and specialisation of task
 Cultural separation of village and town
 Changed relations in Individual – community dynamics
 Subjugation of human beings to machines
 Regimentation of life
 Tocqueville – “Art advances but artisan recedes”
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Impact of French Revolution
Reasons behind French revolution
 Royal absolutism and Monarchical tyranny
 Lavish spending by Louis XVI
 Massive unemployment
 National debt
 Unfair taxation system
 Rise in prices of essential commodities
 Tremendous power welded by Church and Resentment towards
Religious orthodoxy
 Social stratification of Nobility, Clergy and Commoners with
unequal power in parliament
 Rise of Enlightenment ideas
 Aspiration for Liberty, Equality and Republicanism
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Impact of French Revolution

 First Ideological Revolution in Human history

 Possessed of a suddenness and dramatic intensity unmatched

by Industrial revolution

 Sweeping changes in Social, Religious and Political spheres of

life

 Issues raised by French revolution – Tradition Vs reason and

law, religion Vs state, nature of private property, relation of
social class, centralisation, rationalism and equalitarianism
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Impact of French Revolution
Family

 Patriarchal custom and indissolubility of marriage – contrary to

reason
 1792 – marriage was designated as civil contract and grounds
for divorce made available
 1793 – age of majority – fixed at twenty-one – authority of
father ceased when children reached legal age
 Family seen as little republic
 Patriarchy – monarchical form of authority
 Domestic dependents –master relation made contractual
 All this struck at the root of patriarchal family unity
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Impact of French Revolution
Property
 Change in system of inheritance
 Equal distribution of property amongst all children
(sons and daughters)
 Even the inclusion of illegitimate children in family
inheritance
 Economic solidarity of family weakened
 System of inheritance till then in cases of both small
and large estate/ property holdings could be passed on
from one generation to other intact
 Further fragmentation of land
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Impact of French Revolution
3. Religion and Education
 Property belonging to church seized by the state
 Abbe Raynal: State is not made for religion, Religion is made
for the state
 There was no wish to abolish Christianity, but a plain desire to
regulate it completely
 Education and Charitable functions held by the church
transferred to the state
 State took over primary education from family and church
 State: After bread, education is the chief need of the people
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Impact of French Revolution
Law, Administration , Break from old order

 Rousseau: Law is the expression of the general will

 Source of all Sovereignty is essentially in the nation
 All citizens have equal rights in its formation
 All citizens have equal rights to public dignities, places,
employments according to their capacity and virtues
 Standardisation of weights and measurements, geometrically
perfect units and sub units of political administration
 Reform of currency system, change in calender with new names
for the days and months
 Final blow to Feudalism
 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Impact of French Revolution
Response of Sociologists

 Auguste Comte: equalitarianism, popular sovereignty, individualism – ‘false dogmas’

of the revolution – responsible for moral disorganisation in Europe

 Tocqueville: the impact of revolution led him to his work of American democracy

 Le Play: FR responsible for not only secularisation of education, individualisation of

property and acceleration of bureaucracy but also distressed condition of the working
class

 Emile Durkheim: Replacement of ‘corporate egoism’ by ‘individual egoism’

 Leo Strauss: Max Weber’s concept of power and authority owe much to FR and old
order

 Michels: His formulation of law of ‘oligarchy’ and criticism of ‘democratic

centralism’ influenced by French revolution

 Mosca: His theory of power took elements from the Revolution

 The Two Revolutions: Nisbet
Rise of three processes
(combined effect of both the revolutions)
Individualisation
 Separation of individual from family, guild, community, church, estate and
from patriarchal ties in general
 From progressive viewpoint – it was emancipation from tradition,
Conservative: rise of social atomism
 One thing everybody agreed – individual not group is the centre of action

Abstraction
 Values no more rooted in particular context or culture, it became universal
and abstract having standard meaning
 For example: honour, patriotism, etc

Generalisation
 From family and local community, the attention shifted to nation, democracy
and international order
 Individual characteristics became less important, human beings became
‘workers’, ‘poor’, ‘capitalists’, ‘voters’