"Eighteen forty-eighty failed because it turned out that the decisive confrontation was not that between the old regimes and the united 'forces of progress', but between 'order' and 'social revolution' ".
(Extracted from "The Age of Capital: 1848-1875" by Eric Hobsbawm, p. 17)
When hardly anyone can vouch for the day after a revolution, it loses most of its supporters and enthusiasts. Most men prefer security over a soft possibility of a better life. Those intransigently on the barricades are (most likely) in a nothing to loose situation - which can be quite dangerous and unsafe. "Who should benefit from" chaos?
"In 1848-9 moderate liberals therefore made two important discoveries in western Europe: that revolution was dangerous and that some of their substantial demands (especially in economic matters) could be met without it. The bourgeoisie ceased to be a revolutionary force." (idem, p. 20)
Carpe Diem,
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