A biocultural analysis of revolution

Abstract

When analyzed from the vantage point of modern evolutionary theory, sociopolitical revolutions may be viewed as complex behavioral expressions of the competition inherent in natural selection. They involve behavior by challengers that aims toward displacing those who enjoy first access to available power and resources. Revolutions also reveal rulers defending their advantages. The analysis unfolds in three stages: (a) sociopolitical revolutions explained, at least partially, in terms of the logic of natural selection; (b) identification of some “strategies” utilized by both challengers and incumbents in competition for the political apex—these strategies may be thought of as ultimately resulting from evolved behavioral predispositions whose strength, and therefore degree of phenotypical expression, is dependent upon sociocultural influences (changes in the intensity of such predispositions result in challengers and incumbents respectively pursuing strategies that end in the replacement of one ruling group by another); (c) reexamination of some contributions that social scientists have made to our understanding of revolutions. The objective is explication of the relationship between behavioral predispositions and sociocultural variables that have been identified as co-determinants of these political upheavals.