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Models of Iranian Politics, the Road to the Islamic Revolution, and the Challenge of Civil Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

Farhad Kazemi
Farhad Kazemi
Affiliation:
New York University
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Abstract

This essay reviews six recent books on modern Iranian politics. It suggests that Iranian politics can be analyzed from the perspective of four basic traditions and models: monarchical, liberal nationalist, religious, and leftist. Each model abstracts the essential elements of the political system and demonstrates the dominance of a certain perspective. The first three of these models have been implemented in post—World War II Iran, and even the left has had an impact. The essay concludes by stating that current Iranian domestic politics can be better understood by paying attention to five enduring features: historical continuity of the nation-state, steady increase in state power, persistence of patrimonialism, intense interaction between domestic and foreign policies particularly as it relates to control over oil, and the vitality of civil society even under the Islamic Republic.

Type
Review Articles
Information
World Politics , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , July 1995 , pp. 555 - 574
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1995

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References

1 See Sheikholeslami, Reza, “The Patrimonial Structure of Iranian Bureaucracy in the Late Nineteenth Century,” Iranian Studies 11 (1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ashraf, Ahmad, “Historical Obstacles to the Development of a Bourgeoisie in Iran,” Iranian Studies 2 (Spring-Summer, 1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bill, James A., “The Patterns of Elite Politics in Iran,” in Lenczowski, George, ed., Political Elites in the Middle East (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1975)Google Scholar.

2 See Kazemi, Farhad, Politics and Culture in Iran (Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 1988)Google Scholar.

3 On Reza Shah, see Banani, Amin, The Modernization of Iran, 1921–1941 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1961)Google Scholar; Wilber, Donald, Riza Shah Pahlavi: The Resurrection and Reconstruction of Iran, 1878–1944 (Hiclcsville, N.Y.: Exposition Press, 1975)Google Scholar.

4 For prerevolutionary politics under Mohammad Reza Shah, see Zonis, Marvin, The Political Elite of Iran (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971)Google Scholar; Bill, James A., The Politics of Iran: Groups, Classes and Modernization (Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1972)Google Scholar; Binder, Leonard, Iran: Political Development in a Changing Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962)Google Scholar.

5 New York Times, April 20,1979, p. 12, quoted in Zonis, 2.

6 See also Bill, James A., The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

7 On the rentier state problem in Iran, see Mahdary, Hossein, “The Patterns and Problems of Economic Development in Rentier States: The Case of Iran,” in Cook, Michael, ed., Studies in Economic History of the Middle East (London: Oxford University Press, 1970)Google Scholar; Skocpol, Theda, “Rentier State and Shi'a Islam in the Iranian Revolution,” Theory and Society 11 (May 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 For an overview of this period, see Cottam, Richard, Nationalism in Iran (Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1979)Google Scholar; Siavoshi, Sussan, LiberalNationalism in Iran: The Failure of a Movement (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Diba, Farhad, Mossadegh: A Political Biography (London: Croom Helm, 1986)Google Scholar; Bill, James A. and Louis, William Roger, eds., Musaddiq, Iranian Nationalism, and Oil (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

9 See Elm, Mostafa, Oil, Power, and Principle: Iran's Oil Nationalism and Its Aftermath (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1992)Google Scholar.

10 Abrahamian, Ervand, Iran between Two Revolutions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), 260Google Scholar.

11 See Gasiorowski's excellent chapter on Mosaddeq's demise (pp. 57–84). For a personal account, see Roosevelt, Kermit, Countercoup: The Strugglefor Control of Iran (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979)Google Scholar.

12 For a report on this visit, see Chehabi, 243.

13 To his credit, Bazargan and his group challenged Khomeini's decision to continue the Iran-Iraq War as early as 1984. By 1986 the attacks on the regime's war policies became more vociferous and direct, holding Khomeini and his regime responsible for all the miseries that the war brought with it. See Chehabi, 299–301.

14 For an overview, see Keddie, Nikki, Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History of Modern Iran (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981)Google Scholar.

15 See Bakhash, Shaul, The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution (New York: Basic Books, 1984)Google Scholar.

16 See Kazemi, Farhad, “The Fada'iyan-e Islam: Fanaticism, Politics and Terror,” in Arjomand, Said Amir, ed., From Nationalism to Revolutionary Islam (London: Macmillan, 1984)Google Scholar; idem, “State and Society in the Ideology of the Devotees of Islam,” State, Culture and Society 1 (Spring 1985)Google Scholar.

17 For a discussion of Khomeini's changing views on such critical issues as private property, society, and the state, see Abrahamian, Ervand, Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 39–59Google Scholar.

18 See Abrahamian's extensive treatment of the Tudeh Party (fn. 10).

19 Pahlavi, Mohammad Reza, Answer to History (New York: Stein and Day, 1980), 145–74Google Scholar.

20 Ibid., 175–79, for the Shah's vision of the Great Civilization.

21 See Ali Banuazizi, “Iran's Revolutionary Impasse: Political Factionalism and Societal Resistance,” Middle East Report (November-December 1994), 2–8.

22 See, for example, Sorush, Abdolkarim, Farbehtar az Idioloji (More powerful than ideology) (Tehran: Sarat, 1993)Google Scholar.

23 For a different but related discussion of authoritarianism in the Arab world, see Crystal, Jill, “Authoritarianism and Its Adversaries in the Arab World,” World Politics 46 (January 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.