[2][3] The effect is based on Alexis de Tocqueville's observations on the French Revolution and later reforms in Europe and the United States.
[6] Around 1950, Harlan Cleveland introduced the term revolution of rising expectations,[7][8] which in his Cold War context he considered particularly relevant to the Third World.
Relatedly, political scientist James Chowning Davies has proposed a J curve of revolutions which contends that periods of wealth and advancement are followed by periods of worsening conditions, leading to a revolution.
[9] Ted Robert Gurr also used the term relative deprivation to put forth that revolutions happen when there is an expectation of improvement, and a harsh reality in contrast.
[10] Alexis de Tocqueville first described the phenomenon in his book Democracy in America (1840): The hatred that men bear to privilege increases in proportion as privileges become fewer and less considerable, so that democratic passions would seem to burn most fiercely just when they have least fuel.