And this leads us to the central questions of this chapter: What explains social breakdown? Why do states collapse? How do civil wars start? There are two opposite ways to approach these questions. The sociological approach is to ignore individuals and focus entirely on impersonal social forces that push societies into breakdown. But many people (who are not sociologists) find this approach unsatisfying. They want to know who was responsible. Whose fault was the French Revolution? Was it Louis XVI? Marie Antoinette? Robespierre?
