May 68: the last revolutionary wave to reach the center of capitalism - DOI: 10.4025/actascihumansoc.v30i2.3205

Abstract

Revolutionary situations, as the May of 68 in France, can evolve in radicalization towards a revolutionary crisis – the hour of insurrection, when the crisis in the regime grows and precipitates a crisis of the State – or can flow back, and allow the stabilization of domination. May 68 in France was a defeated political revolution, as De Gaulle and the regime of the 5th Republic survived, but nonetheless a revolution. The revolutions in a country, especially if victorious, favor changes for reforms, both in countries where the earthquake blew up and in others. Even aborted revolutions function, historically, as a yellow alert for the leading classes that some concessions will have to be make, in order to prevent a new short circuit in sociopolitical relations. Reforms can be either economic, social, cultural, or political. However, the reforms were not the work of the counterrevolution: they were, essentially, a by-product of the revolution.