MARX THEORY OF REBELLION - A CROSS-NATIONAL ANALYSIS OF CLASS EXPLOITATION, ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT, AND VIOLENT REVOLT

Despite extensive criticism, Marx's theory of rebellion has not been a nalyzed directly in cross-national research. The failure of proletaria n revolutions to occur in the most developed countries has discredited Marx's predictions. Recent cross-national studies of rebellion and po litical violence have discovered a perplexing positive effect of econo mic development on rebellion, net of income inequality and political d emocracy. We show that a proper understanding of Marx's theory can exp lain this finding. Economic development fosters revolt because of its impact on proletarianization and class exploitation. We offer a Marxis t interpretation of rebellion research and develop a novel measure of class exploitation in a cross-national regression analysis of violent rebellion in 61 countries. Our results conform to Marx's expectation t hat the effect of class exploitation on revolt is conditioned by marke t crises. Although some findings are consistent with alternative theor ies, we suggest that the findings provide new empirical support for Ma rx's insights.