Theda Skocpol

Skocpol’s most famous book, States and Social Revolutions: A comparative Analysis of Social Revolutions in Russia, France and China (1979), discusses how most theories account only for direct action in bringing about revolutions. Social Revolutions are fast-paced foundational transformations of society's state and class structures. She includes the structure involved in creating a revolutionary situation that can lead to a social revolution - one that changes civic institutions and government once the administration and military branches collapse.

In her text, Skocpol "offers a framework of reference for analyzing social-revolutionary transformations in modern world history" and discusses and compares the causes of The "French Revolution" of 1787–1800, The Russian Revolution of 1917–1921, and The Chinese Revolution of 1911–1949.

According to Skocpol, there are two stages to social revolutions: a crisis of state and the emergence of a dominant class to take advantage of a revolutionary situation. The crisis of state emerges from poor economy, natural disaster, food shortage, or security concerns. Leaders of the revolution also have to face these constraints, and their handling of them affects how well they re-establish the state.

Skocpol uses Marxism’s class struggle to assert that the main causes of social unrest are state social structures, international competitive pressures, international demonstrations, and class relations. Critics suggest that Skocpol ignores the role of individuals and ideology[11] and uses varied comparative methodological strategies.

Before she wrote Protecting Soldiers and Mothers, Skocpol first devised what she termed State Autonomy Theory. This theory underlined the idea that state bureaucracies could have the potential for autonomous operations, and that this potential was ignored by scientists who were focused on society-centric studies. Skocpol considers the idea that parties are more important in America than the government, and that class dominance plays heavily into American politics.[12]

In this book, Skocpol considers increased benefits for Civil War veterans and their families resulting from competitive party politics, as well as greater actions taken in women's movements. Soldiers and mothers benefited from social spending, labor regulations, and health education through reformative women's clubs across the nation. Simultaneously, Skocpol refutes her claim that theorists had ignored states' independent power in her state autonomy theory, explaining "my state-centered theoretical frame of reference had evolved into a fully 'polity-centered approach,' meaning that social movements, coalitions of pressure groups, and political parties must be given their due in understanding power in America."

Skocpol explains how clubs and associations fill the vacuum left by fewer bureaucracies and an official church throughout the country, offering a case study in how women succeeded in gaining labor rights, pensions, minimum wage, and subsidized natal health clinics. Further, Skocpol points out that women were able to overcome class disparity to achieve these goals, working at a national level, influencing representatives with books, TV, magazines, and meetings.[13]

Diminished Democracy discusses the changes in US public involvement and its recent concerning decline. Skocpol talks about how to reverse it in explaining how the U.S. became a civic nation, the organizers of that movement, management of civic organizations, changes in them, the harmful effects of that change, and how to recreate a sense of citizenship.

Since fewer and fewer Americans join voluntary groups that meet frequently, there has been a proliferation of nonprofit groups led by elites who can interact with the government, but not the people. Dr. Skocpol provokes the reader with the idea that civic involvement will one day become another job rather than a civilian responsibility.

In 2009, Skocpol conceived of and co-founded the Scholars Strategy Network, an association of academics and researchers who coordinate to address public challenges while increasing the accessibility of their findings to those outside of academia.[14][15] As of 2018, she serves as the network's Director.[16]

• Skocpol, Theda (1979). States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China. Canto Classics. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29499-7.
• Skocpol, Theda (1992). Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-71765-7.
• Skocpol, Theda (1994). Social Revolutions in the Modern World. Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-40938-4.
• Skocpol, Theda (1995). Social Policy in the United States: Future Possibilities in Historical Perspective. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-03785-1.
• Finegold, Kenneth; Skocpol, Theda (1995). State and Party in America's New Deal. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-14764-8.
• Skocpol, Theda (1996). Boomerang: Clinton's Health Security Effort and the Turn Against Government in U.S. Politics. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-03970-2.
• Skocpol, Theda (1997). Boomerang: Health Reform and the Turn Against Government. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-31572-1.
• Skocpol, Theda (2000). The Missing Middle: Working Families and the Future of American Social Policy. The Century Foundation. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-32113-5.
• Skocpol, Theda (2003). Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life. The Julian J. Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture Series. 8. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-5017-8.
• Skocpol, Theda; Liazos, Ariane; Ganz, Marshall (2006). What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12299-1.
• Skocpol, Theda; Bartels, Larry M; Edwards, Mickey; Mettler, Suzanne (2012). Obama and America’s Political Future. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-07164-3.
• Skocpol, Theda; Williamson, Vanessa (2012). The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-983263-7.

• Burawoy, Michael; Skocpol, Theda, eds. (1982). Marxist Inquiries: Studies of Labor, Class, and States. American Journal of Sociology supplement. 88. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-08040-6.
• Skocpol, Theda, ed. (1984). Vision and Method in Historical Sociology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29724-0.
• Evans, Peter B.; Rueschemeyer, Dietrich; Skocpol, Theda, eds. (1985). Bringing the State Back In. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-71713-8.
• Weir, Margaret; Orloff, Ann Shola; Skocpol, Theda, eds. (1988). The Politics of Social Policy in the United States. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-09436-6.
• American Society and Politics: Institutional, Historical, and Theoretical Perspectives (with John L. Campbell), McGraw-Hill (New York), 1995.
• States, Social Knowledge, and the Origins of Modern Social Policies (with Dietrich Rueschemeyer), Princeton University Press, 1996.
• The New Majority: Toward a Popular Progressive Politics (with Stan Greenberg), Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1997.
• Democracy, Revolution, and History (with George Ross, Tony Smith, and Judith Eisenberg Vichniac), Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1998.
• Civic Engagement in American Democracy (with Morris P. Fiorina), Brookings Institution Press (Washington, DC)/Russell Sage Foundation (New York City), 1999.
• The Transformation of American Politics. Activist Government and the Rise of Conservatism (with Paul Pierson), Princeton University Press, 2007.

• A Critical Review of Barrington Moore’s Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Politics and Society, 4(1), pp. 1–34
• Review article: "Cultural Idioms and Political Ideologies in the Revolutionary Reconstruction of State Power: A Rejoinder to Sewell," The Journal of Modern History Vol. 57, No. 1, March 1985