In his study on revolutions, Sociologist Walter Goldfrank summed up his observations by listing four prerequisites for revolutions to occur: a favorable world context, an administrative and coercive crisis of the state, widespread rural rebellion and dissident elite movement(s). The first three, says Goldfrank, synthesized to form a revolutionary situation. The fourth, given the near-automatic existence of alternate contenders, emerges to effect political and social transformation after military superiority is proved.