Gurevich, P. S. Reform VS Revolution

Abstract: At the end of XIX century Japan was about to jump from feudalism into a modern world. How would it be possible to perform such transformation in history? Experience of Europe mostly showed that it would be impossible without a social revolution. As many social philosophers assumed, only a social revolution could enable a fast shift from one socio-economic system to another. Of course social reformation was also taken into account, but it was believed that only social revolution would break the ties of traditions. From the political point of view, all revolutions need a destruction or neutralization of inner enemies as well as forces incompatible with their historical orientation. A revolution would never be over unless that target was achieved. At the end of the century Japan dreamt of coming back to the Emperor’s reign. As a famous American researcher R. Benedict noted, Japanese tried to protect Japan from the influence of the other world and come back to the golden epoch of X century when the government was not ‘shared’ by the Emperor and Shogun. R. Benedict meant Meiji Restoration’s reforms (1867-1868) — so called bourgeois revolution in Japan when the institution of ‘shared government’ was eliminated and the Emperor’s power was restored. However, many Japanese did not like such outcome.

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