<P> Economist Douglass North argued that it is much easier for revolutionaries to alter formal political institutions such as laws and constitutions than to alter informal social conventions . According to North, inconsistencies between rapidly changing formal institutions and slow - changing informal ones can inhibit effective sociopolitical change . Because of this, the long - term effect of revolutionary political restructuring is often more moderate than the ostensible short - term effect . </P> <P> While revolutions encompass events ranging from the relatively peaceful revolutions that overthrew communist regimes to the violent Islamic revolution in Afghanistan, they exclude coups d'état, civil wars, revolts, and rebellions that make no effort to transform institutions or the justification for authority (such as Józef Piłsudski's May Coup of 1926 or the American Civil War), as well as peaceful transitions to democracy through institutional arrangements such as plebiscites and free elections, as in Spain after the death of Francisco Franco . </P>

How was society changed by the latin american revolution