Carolina QuotesMany triggering events... are ultimately caused by pent-up social pressures ...[i.e.,] the structural factors.
Peter Turchin Connected to the Carolinas
Source
Introduction
- work
- The 2010 structural-demographic forecast for the 2010–2020 decade (Aug 17, 2020)
- year
- 2010
Cite this record
“Many triggering events... are ultimately caused by pent-up s…” Peter Turchin. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-0543C5006D. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/0543c5006d
More from Peter Turchin
Societies adjust to climatic shocks when they are internally coherent and social cooperation is high, and therefore they can find solutions, but when such climate shocks happen when the elites are divided, essentially different factions of elites start using the climate shocks as a weapon in internecine struggle. We see this in the United States where one party denies... there is quite a large fraction of climate deniers, and so it has become part of the political infighting, rather than trying to find a collective decision, collective action that would address this issue.
[D]isease outbreaks occur much more frequently during... crisis periods. Such epidemics historically have had a disproportionate effect on the less advantaged... and the Covid-19 pandemic was not an exception. ...[I]n terms of structural-demographic theory... the pandemic... further worsened the well-being of large swaths of the American population... consequently, drove up the mass-mobilization potential. ...[G]overnmental dysfunction in dealing with the pandemic, coupled with intra-elite infighting, will likely further depress... trust in government institutions. Thus... the coronavirus has... further destabilize[d] the American polity.
Quantitative historical analysis reveals that complex human societies are affected by recurrent—and predictable—waves of political instability...