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Trigger Turns Grievances Into Decisive Force
- Revolutions open a final contest to decide whether the sovereign still holds a preponderance of force.
- The trigger converts long-building resistance and frustration into kinetic energy that forces elites and popular forces into decisive action.
Cross-Class Coalitions Have Contradictory Aims
- First-wave revolutions create cross-class coalitions spanning royalty to peasants united against the sovereign.
- Each group joins for different rewards: dynastic claimants want power, merchants want profit, workers want wages, peasants want land reform.
Vague Slogans Mask Deeply Different Interests
- Abstract, universal slogans like liberty or equality fuse diverse groups by letting each project their own goals onto them.
- The key unifier is belief that the sovereign is the obstacle preventing everyone’s diverse aims from being realized.