The focus of this paper will be revolutions as a Third World phenomena. It will try to analyse what are the conditions and challenges faced by Third World states; and what are the functions that those states perform, or fail to perform. In other words, what are the conditions likely to lead to a revolution within Third World nation-states? / Of course, every Third World state possesses its particular circumstances and, therefore, different factors will influence the occurrence of a revolution in each case. It would be presumptuous of me to attempt to address all of these issues which have been raised. My task is indeed more modest. Since it is very unlikely to elaborate a single theory that will fit all cases, this paper will rather consider a theoretical framework and assess its applicability and its explanatory potential of one Third World revolution, the Nicaraguan revolution. / What this paper will also do is to examine what happens when a successful revolution has taken place. How is the new regime constructed? How is the power of the revolutionary government employed? Can we assess the relative success of a revolution? / The use of a single case study, Nicaragua, can be explained by the richness of this particular example. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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