Karl Marx is famous for stating that Capitalism is the most revolutionary force known to man, and was in fact a great admirer of the American Revolution (which was a libertarian revolution in principle). History has given birth to a scant few truly revolutionary political ideologies: empire, democracy, theocracy and Marxism to name a few. One by one, each of these has proven to be unsustainable.
The age of Empires certainly resulted in the spread of technology throughout the world, but also lead to massive oppression, disaster and tyranny. Eventually maintaining a physical Empire proved too expensive to sustain. Democracy likewise led to the tyranny of the majority, while theocracy failed because it's subjects would eventually realize that the premise on which they were ruled was illogical and oppressive.
Marxism was the most radical of revolutions, but at the same time was the shortest lived, as it's prescriptions for society failed to take into account the nature of Man as a self-interested being. This proved to hold true whether or not men we're acting independently or as part of government. The enforcement of Marxism demanded adherence to a totalitarian state, and did not take into account the specific wants and needs of each individual and subjected them to the will of "the party".
The Jeffersonian revolution lives on through much of the world, as it most closely matches the individual aspirations of each man and women. It is perhaps the simplest of revolutions.. based on the idea that there is no objective means of determining what is "good" for society, and therefore individuals must have the right to decide for themselves. Government exists only to prevent these individuals from enforcing their will on their fellow men. The Jeffersonian revolution has the unique position of being an eternally revolutionary ideology independent of History. That is, as long as a single human being around the world is held under direct oppression by another, the revolution is still to come for THAT individual. As Jefferson stated, he wished to see an Empire of Liberty, where the most powerful authority was that of an Individual over his own thoughts and actions.
