The Importance of Intra-Elite Competition in a Crisis

All three factors are necessary, says Julian Zelizer. "You need that elite polarization and deathly competition to coincide with a situation where the government is in a pickle," he says. But there's some crucial difficulty where elites are presented with this choice: Do we fix the government or overthrow it? If they're really divided, then you'll probably have some groups try and preserve the existing government; other groups want to change it.