Not all social and political revolutions have roots in democracy, but those most likely to succeed stem from popular participation from broad coalitions of people, according to UC Santa Barbara sociologist John Foran.

In his new book, “Taking Power: On the Origins of Third World Revolutions,” Foran studies three dozen Third World revolutions that occurred between 1910 and the present, and advances a new theory that integrates the political, economic, and cultural factors that inspired them. Using qualitative comparative analysis, he also attempts to explain why so few revolutions actually succeed.

“Revolutions are fascinating because they’re rare efforts by people to shape society for the better,” said Foran. “That’s the dream, the goal, no matter what the outcome.”

Scholars describe the book as the most comprehensive study of Third World revolutions available. The book has recently been named co-winner of the Pacific Sociological Association’s 2006 Award for Distinguished Scholarship.

Foran examines particular sets of revolutions, looking first at the great social upheavals of Mexico, China, Cuba, Iran, and Nicaragua from 1910 to 1979. He moves on to the anti-colonial revolutions in Algeria, Vietnam, Angola, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe that took place between the 1940s and the 1970s, and then turns to the reversed revolutions of Iran, Guatemala, Bolivia, Chile, Jamaica, Grenada, and Nicaragua during the 1940s through 1980s. He touches on the failed revolutionary attempts in El Salvador, Tiananmen Square, Algeria, and Peru.

Finally, he analyzes the political revolutions in the Philippines, Haiti, Zaire, and South Africa, closing with sustained speculation about the future of revolutions in the post-Cold War, post-9/11 age of globalization.

Taking a sociological as well as a historical view, Foran compares 36 political and social revolutions and notes that only a handful have succeeded. He defines a successful revolution as one in which new leaders take power and hold it long enough to make differences in the lives of the people who support them.

Comparing the circumstances surrounding so many events is a huge undertaking, and one a historian would likely not attempt, he said. “The topic is too broad. But a sociologist might [take on the study] because we want to answer questions across the board. We’ll trade detail for breadth.”

Examining the economic, political, and cultural dimensions of each revolution, Foran identified economic inequality as a common underlying factor. “Revolution is about reversing economic inequality and putting power into the people’s hands,” he said. “If you find ways to involve people in their own governance, societies flourish.”

A faculty member in the Department of Sociology since 1988, Foran specializes in development and globalization; social change; Middle East studies; Latin American studies; comparative historical methods; Third World cultural studies; social theory; political sociology; and social movements, particularly in Iran.

He currently serves as the department’s director of undergraduate studies and has previously been vice chair of the department and director of the Program in Latin American and Iberian Studies at UCSB, and visiting professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Smith College.