Understanding the dynamics of violent political revolutions in an agent-based framework

This paper develops an agent-based computational model of violent political revolution in which a subjugated population of agents and an armed revolutionary organization try to overthrow a central authority and its loyal forces. The model replicates several patterns of rebellion consistent with the major historical revolutions and provides an explanation for the multiplicity of outcomes that can arise from an uprising. This last point is of particular interest if we consider the heterogeneity of political outcomes produced by the recent revolutionary episodes in the so-called Arab Spring.