Charles Tilly defines it as "a social movement advancing exclusive competing claims to control of the state, or some segment of it".
[1] Jeff Goodwin and James M. Jasper define it more simply (and consistently with other works[2][need quotation to verify]) as "a social movement that seeks, as minimum, to overthrow the government or state".
[4] Goodwin distinguishes between a conservative (reformist) and radical revolutionary movements, depending on how much of a change they want to introduce.
[4] A radical revolutionary movement will thus want both to take an exclusive control of the state, and to fundamentally transform one or more elements of its society, economy or culture.
[6][need quotation to verify] The same social movement may be viewed differently depending on a given context (usually the government of the country where it unfolds).