Why Revolutions Fail #
August 14th, 2008 | In Worth Considering
When considering the under-noticed anniversary of Burma’s 1988 uprising, The Economist’s Asia.view column hits a sensible point I’d never considered:
No, the reason the revolution failed was simple: the army was prepared to kill as many people as it took to thwart it.
So long as a state apparatus is strong and remains cohesive, it’s hard to imagine how any citizen uprising can end authoritarianism.