“This is what the Bolsheviks do” : How Democratic Politicians Use Foreign Revolutions to Attract Voters
Buhmann-Holmes, Nicholas LU
(2025)
In Comparative Political Studies
58(13).
p.2902-2938
- Abstract
Revolution in one country can inspire protests in another country, demanding responses from elites seeking to maintain power. Scholars typically use a policy-centered approach to analyze these responses, focusing on how policy strategies of repression or co-optation are used to prevent revolution. But in democracies, political survival is also electoral success. This article therefore argues that studying the communicative signaling of political elites allows us to see another important response to foreign revolutions: how democratic politicians through speeches use foreign revolutions to attract revolution-wary voters. Building on recent legislative debate scholarship, the article develops a parliamentary speech signaling framework and... (More)
Revolution in one country can inspire protests in another country, demanding responses from elites seeking to maintain power. Scholars typically use a policy-centered approach to analyze these responses, focusing on how policy strategies of repression or co-optation are used to prevent revolution. But in democracies, political survival is also electoral success. This article therefore argues that studying the communicative signaling of political elites allows us to see another important response to foreign revolutions: how democratic politicians through speeches use foreign revolutions to attract revolution-wary voters. Building on recent legislative debate scholarship, the article develops a parliamentary speech signaling framework and demonstrates its usefulness by analyzing Danish elite responses to revolutions in the 1910s. This approach enables us to see how democratic politicians use foreign revolutions for electoral advantages, and it addresses a noted difficulty of previous research in clarifying whether co-optation or repression in democracies emerged as responses to revolutions.
(Less)
- author
- Buhmann-Holmes, Nicholas
LU
- publishing date
- 2025-11
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- conflict processes, European politics, political regimes, revolution, social movements, social welfare programs
- in
- Comparative Political Studies
- volume
- 58
- issue
- 13
- pages
- 37 pages
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85212445920
- ISSN
- 0010-4140
- DOI
- 10.1177/00104140241306965
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024
- id
- 6c85e9cb-bd90-4388-b5ec-317629893d97
- date added to LUP
- 2025-11-12 16:21:57
- date last changed
- 2025-11-14 09:28:24
@article{6c85e9cb-bd90-4388-b5ec-317629893d97,
abstract = {{<p>Revolution in one country can inspire protests in another country, demanding responses from elites seeking to maintain power. Scholars typically use a policy-centered approach to analyze these responses, focusing on how policy strategies of repression or co-optation are used to prevent revolution. But in democracies, political survival is also electoral success. This article therefore argues that studying the communicative signaling of political elites allows us to see another important response to foreign revolutions: how democratic politicians through speeches use foreign revolutions to attract revolution-wary voters. Building on recent legislative debate scholarship, the article develops a parliamentary speech signaling framework and demonstrates its usefulness by analyzing Danish elite responses to revolutions in the 1910s. This approach enables us to see how democratic politicians use foreign revolutions for electoral advantages, and it addresses a noted difficulty of previous research in clarifying whether co-optation or repression in democracies emerged as responses to revolutions.</p>}},
author = {{Buhmann-Holmes, Nicholas}},
issn = {{0010-4140}},
keywords = {{conflict processes; European politics; political regimes; revolution; social movements; social welfare programs}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{13}},
pages = {{2902--2938}},
publisher = {{SAGE Publications}},
series = {{Comparative Political Studies}},
title = {{“This is what the Bolsheviks do” : How Democratic Politicians Use Foreign Revolutions to Attract Voters}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00104140241306965}},
doi = {{10.1177/00104140241306965}},
volume = {{58}},
year = {{2025}},
}