Review

Author(s): Michael S. Kimmel

Review by: Michael S. Kimmel
Source: Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Jul., 1987), pp. 481-483
Published by: American Sociological Association
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 REVIEWS 481

sanguine about world-systems analysis, its civilian economic aid and to military projects,
definitions, unit of analysis, and the like will including counterinsurgency. The roles of the
find that those very strengths provide them with Social Science Research Council and the
a clear target. For critics of world-system CIA-funded Congress for Cultural Freedom
theory, Bornschier and Chase-Dunn's book is receive some attention, while that of organiza-
likely to confirm their prejudice. Marxist tions like the Council on Foreign Relations does
political economists, I believe, will find con- not. Reports and publications dealing with
firmed their suspicions about the functionalist "militarymodernizers," anticipatingand prevent-
and underlying logical positivist stance of this ing revolutions (Project Camelot), and imple-
perspective. I cannot recall a recent book where menting AID programs are reviewed carefully; a
I marked up the margins with more protest over reader's patience is tried.
what I regarded as loose logic, shifting or The most original and interesting sections
especially vague definitions, difficult interpre- criticize Political Development directly, via its
tations of history, and convenient disclaimers. origins in and its connections to conservative
The reason is obvious: where I see classes and trends in social thought and political science
capital accumulation and class struggle, the generally. Here Gendzier demonstrates the
authors see hierarchies, systems of power, and carryover from "mass society" interpretationsof
social mobility. Nevertheless, I will insist that industrial countries (where liberals rejected
my graduate students read this book. The them) to the Third World, where the "disease of
research problem is important, the review of the transition" lurked in every anomic corner.
findings is valuable, and it does provide an And in her lucid rereading of the staples of the
excellent example of model building and tradition (Lerner, Shils, Almond, Huntington),
hypothesis testing within the world-system she shows the unmistakable imprint of the elitist
paradigm. revision of democratic theory prevalent in
postwar social science, a revision in which
nonparticipation became a good thing. Along
Managing Political Change: Social Scientists with this depoliticization of development poli-
and the Third World, by IRENEL. GENDZIER. tics came a casting about for psychological and
Boulder & London: Westview Press, 1985. 238 cultural explanations, our century's version, it
pp. $42.50 cloth. $15.95 paper. seems to me, of Social Darwinism.
Gendzier teaches Middle Eastern history and
WALTERL. GOLDFRANK political science at Boston University, across the
University of California, Santa Cruz river from MIT and Harvard, where many of the
constitutive texts were created in the 1950s and
Twenty years ago students of social change 1960s. But it would be wrong to attribute her
faced the dreary task of plowing through page critical dissection of Political Development to
after page of jargon-ridden articles, chapters, ressentiment. Rereading the snippets she cites in
and books about political development in the her controlled, dispassionate text, one is con-
"new" (Asia and Africa) or not-so-new (Latin fronted anew with the abstracted tendentious-
America) nations. Supported by the great ness of these apologists for empire whose
foundations and the burgeoning bureaucracies current disciples call Somocista thugs "freedom
who used these writings to justify their meddling fighters" and liken them to the founding fathers
and manipulation, liberal anticommunists sought of the first new nation. Yeah, that's it, that's the
formulae to reconcile the ravages of capitalist ticket.
development with the ideal of democratic
participation that supposedly distinguishes us
from the Evil Empire. Revolutions: Theoretical, Comparative, and
For most sociologists, the modernization Historical Studies, edited by JACKA. GOLD-
paradigm and the political development litera- STONE. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace
ture it spawned have long been laid to rest, Jovanovich, 1986. 343 pp. $13.95 paper.
however much we might argue about how best
to replace it. But as Irene Gendzier reminds us, MICHAEL S. KIMMEL
it remains the dominant discourse in the media SUNY, Stony Brook
and in policy-making circles; thus the utility of
her exhuming them for one last autopsy. The problem of revolution has always been
Gendzier's examination of the discourse of central to sociology. Nineteenth- and early twen-
political development is one part sociology of tieth-century masters saw revolutions as the
knowledge, one part internal critique. The fulfillment of more prolonged processes of
former highlights the role of academic consult- social change (viz. Tocqueville's relative depri-
ants in congressional testimony and executive vation, Marx's class struggle, and Weber's
branchpolicy making, with due attention both to rationalization and administrative centraliza-

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482 REVIEWS

tion). Mid-twentieth-centuryschools cast revo- relentlessmarchof bureaucracy,but not on the

lutionsas cataclysmicallydestructivemoments, revolutionarypotentialof charismaor messianic
when things went decisively wrong; hence religion. Goldstonedownplaysworld-historical
psychologistic models of mobilization and forces so that a strongand sweepingtheoretical
usedrevolutionsas neg-
structural-functionalism essay by SkocpolandEllenKay Trimbergerand
ative cases of the maintenanceof social order. an exemplaryempiricalstudy of the Mexican
Since the late 1960s-since, let's say, the Revolutionby WalterGoldfrankbearthe entire
publicationof BarringtonMoore's Social Ori- burdenof the structuringof domesticpossibili-
gins of Dictatorship and Democracy in 1966-a ties by transnationalforces. I missed a theoreti-
new generationof sociologistshas maderevolu- cal summationof Wallerstein'sworld-systems
tion centralto their inquiries,and has insisted perspectiveon revolution,or an excerpt from
that its sociology be increasinglycomparative, JeffreyPaige's brilliantempiricalexplorationof
historical, and structural.Charles Tilly inge- how the organizationof the export agricultural
niously launched a two-pronged critique of sector determinesa revolution's trajectory.(I
functionalism'sallergy to historicalspecificity might have includedthese insteadof the more
andpsychologisticreductionof collectivemobi- discursivenarrativesby JerroldGreenon Iranor
lization to an aggregateof individualpsyches; ThomasWalkeron Nicaragua.)
Immanuel Wallerstein raised the level of Problems of inadvertentomission are the
analysis to an integratedworld system; and result of strategicchoices, not of a systematic
Moore's own students, most notably Theda conceptual frame; this latter leads to what
SkocpolandVictoriaBonnell,publishedimpres- appears to be "deliberateomission." While
sive empiricalstudiesthatcontinuethe trendof Goldstoneincludes many importantessays, he
increasinghistoricalspecificityin the compara- rarely presents them so that they directly
tive historicalsociology of revolution. confrontone another.(The exceptionis Tilly's
Jack Goldstoneis among the best of a new response to Samuel Huntington'sthesis that
generationof comparativehistoricalsociologists modernizationdestabilizesregimes and causes
of revolution. Firmly rooted in structural revolutions, which is both old and celebrated
analysis-his study of the social origins of the enough to be safe.) His introductoryessay
English Revolutiongrafts demographicfactors adoptsa "naturalhistoryof theoriesof revolu-
onto several structurallayers-he also recog- tion" (a school that is justifiablycriticizedas
nizes his debtsto otherschools of thought.His nonstructural),so that one set of explanations
anthology, Revolutions: Theoretical, Compara- effortlessly replaces its predecessor. Internal
tive, and Historical Studies is, I believe, the debates are downplayed or omitted. Though
best single college-levelreaderon the subject. Skocpol argues that one can hardly speak of
Granted,there's not much competition;only Mexico or England in the same breath as
Aya and Miller's National Liberation (1971) France,Russia,or China(theonly threecases of
integratestheory and history as well, and that successful social revolution),her analysis and
book is sorelyout of datewithoutconsiderations the empiricalessays by Goldfrankand Gold-
of Iran, Nicaragua,and post-MaoChina. The stone compose the "origins" of revolution
classical and contemporarytexts selected by section. The important, analytically vicious
Goldstone(andmanywere revisedandabridged debates about collective motivationsbetween
especiallyfor this collection)raisenearlyall the Tilly and Ted RobertGurr, or between James
significant questions about the sociological Scott and SamuelPopkinon the mobilizationof
study of revolution.Goldstone'selegant intro- the Vietnamesepeasantryare not included,as if
ductory essay describes various sociological such controversymight confuse undergraduate
approaches to revolution with insight and students.Andwhy no articlesat all on Vietnam?
erudition. No doubt this text will be widely What must surely be the most controversial
adoptedin courses on social change, historical element in the study of revolutions-does the
and contemporarydevelopment. I intend to revolutionproducea societywith moreequality,
adoptit myself. freedom, justice than the one it toppled?-is
But not withoutsome misgivings.Two sets of also somewhatcircumvented.JonathanKelley
problems mar this excellent anthology. First, and HerbertS. Klein arguethatpostrevolution-
there are the inevitableproblemsof what one aryeconomicdevelopmentwill increaseinequal-
might call "inadvertentomission," as the ity and statusinheritance,and Goldstonestates
impulse towardscomprehensivenessleads one that"revolutionshave generallyfailedto deliver
to makechoices thatare moreor less fortuitous. on theirchief promises"(p. 207). One hundred
Goldstone'sstructuralism leads him away from pages later, SusanEcksteinmakesa convincing
ideology and political culture as explanatory case that postrevolutionary Latin Americadra-
variables;for example, he includesTocqueville maticallyimprovedthe materialwell-being of
on the failureof governmentalreformbut not on those in whose name the revolutionwas made;
French national character,and Weber on the whether one measures income distribution,

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 REVIEWS 483

health care, or nutrition, Latin American she details the ever-changingbalanceof forces
revolutions "gave rise to more egalitarian as the planters pursued strategies of labor
societiesthanthey displaced"(p. 306). What's control ranging from a coercive indenture
more, she uses a world-economyapproachto systemto a residentlaborreserveon the margins
explain the constraints on a new regime's of the plantationestates. Attemptingto fashion
capacity to institute even more sweeping their own strategiesof survivalin this violent
reforms. context were the Javanese, who originatedas
Granted,theseareas muchmoralquestionsas "contractcoolies" within an enclave of Dutch
they are empiricalquestions, and that Revolu- colonialandplanterauthorityin Sumatra,where
tions raises such issues is testamentto Gold- the local populationwas underMalayauthority.
stone's editorialachievement.Even thoughone Female "coolies" were used to attract,pacify,
must look elsewhere for the theoretical(and and regulate the male labor force, and this
political) controversies that often fuel the manipulationof sexuality as a componentof
empiricalstudies of revolution, this text pro- labor control itself became an object of
vides the mostcomprehensiveintroductionto an contentionleadingtowarda familypolicy. Thus
excitingandgrowingsubdisciplineof sociology. Stoler'snarrativeemphasizesthatany elemental
class structuringof the conflictconstituted,and
was mediated by, ethnic, racial, and gender
Capitalism and Confrontation in Sumatra's relations.
Plantation Belt, 1870-1979, by ANN LAURA In this lies the strengthof the study. For
New Haven: Yale University Press,
STOLER. Stoleris not simplyassertingthatclass relations
1985. 244 pp. $22.50 cloth. are infused with other socioculturalrelations.
She is also carefullydocumenting(withprimary
PHILIPMCMICHAEL sources from all sides) the constructionof a
University of Georgia laborforce as a complexprocessof household-
and community-formation within the coercive
The penetration of capitalism into Third context of an industrygearedto world market
Worldsettings(or any setting)does not occurin forces. Her ability to locate the shifts in social
a culturalvacuum.Its incorporationof peoples relationson the ground as part and parcel of
into commoditymarketsis markedby simulta- worldcapitalisteconomyis exemplary.
neous forms of accommodationand resistance Two themesstandout fromthis study. There
which structurethose marketsand theircultural is, in the first place, the subtlety of Stoler's
impact. Stoler does an admirable job of treatmentof the ultimate hegemony of the
demonstratingthe "ethnographic"history of planters despite the tactical successes of the
capitalismin NorthSumatrain these terms.The laborforce (whichreacheda crescendoof union
theoretical"history"of capitalmayhave certain and squattermilitancyin the 1940s and early
law-like tendenciesgeneratingnew social cate- '50s). This hegemonywas exercisedthroughthe
gories and conflicts, but its empiricalhistory social fact of commoditizationand its accom-
depends precisely on the relative force and panying imperatives,which shaped the labor
ingenuityover time of its real live categorical community'sinternalrelationsand its relations
actors. In this case, planter capital and its to theestatesas a laborreserve.Here,in a superb
variouspoliticaland militaryallies (as adminis- ethnography(superbbecause it is historically
trationschangedhands)confrontedlocal Javan- and comparativelyinformedand well written)
ese communitiesimportedas plantationlabor. Stoler analyzes a particularlabor community,
SpanningDutch colonialism,Japaneseoccupa- SimpangLima. She shows how recentshifts in
tion, andIndonesiannationalistperiods,Stoler's the plantationeconomy (from rubberto palm
account shows how the elemental struggle oil, and towardthe employmentof temporary
between these forces over the conditions of labor) have generated new labor and land
plantationlabor (and its reproduction)shaped markets, new mercantile classes, and hence
both the political economy of the plantation mushroomingcommoditymarketsthat encom-
system and the structure of the Javanese pass SimpangLima. In this context of shifting
communities. opportunitiesit has becomeless of a community
The narrativeaddressesthe issue, centralto of laboron the marginsof the estates, andmore
analysisof plantationsystems,of the makingof of a "ruralward,feedingthe demandsof North
a labor force that combines both peasantand Sumatra'sestate and regionallabormarketand
proletarianfeatures. Eschewing functionalist 'harboring'those workersbetweentheir forays
accountsthat would concludethat gardenplots into it" (p. 195).
stabilizeand cheapena plantationlabor force, Second and related, to the extent that these
Stoleropts for a historicalaccountemphasizing underemployedlaborersdepend,via the house-
"peasantization"as an active defense against hold, on pooled wages ratherthan subsistence
the depredationsof proletarianization. That is, agriculture,this is a "modeof consumptionnot

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