Can we compare revolutions?

A lecture by Jérôme Heurtaux (CEFRES director) as part of the Franco-czech historical seminar organized by Institute for Czech History of the Faculty of arts, Charles University (FFUK), in collaboration with CEFRES.

Venue: Faculty of Arts of Charles University, nám. J. Palacha 2, Prague 1, room 201
Date & Time: 21 November 2019, 9:10-12:10
Language: French

Abstract:

As a canonical object of social sciences, the revolutionary phenomenon provoked numerous comparative approaches in sociology, history and political sciences. Which statement can we draw from the international comparison of revolutions? On the strength of the scientific literature and of his own searches about the fall of communism in Poland and about the Tunisian revolution, Jérôme Heurtaux will point out the advantages and the limits of the comparative exercise, and will make the case for a controlled and an erratic comparison.

JÉRÔME HEURTAUX is director of the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES) in Prague. He is a specialist in regime change and in democratic transitions. Among his several publications belong La démocratie par le droit. Pologne 1989-2016 (Presses de Sciences po, 2017), Introduction à l’Europe postcommuniste (avec Frédéric Zalewski, De Boeck, 2012) and 1989 à l’Est de l’Europe. Une mémoire controversée (in co-direction with Cédric Pellen, L’Aube, 2009). He publishes in 2019 Pologne, 1989. Comment le communisme s’est effondré (Éditions Codex).