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2014, Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses
Ayatollah Khomeini and Ali Shariati are seen as twin pillars of revolutionary Islam in contemporary Iran. This article contextualizes and compares these radical discourses in three sections. It first problematizes the transformation of Khomeini as a quietist cleric into a revolutionary ayatollah. While Khomeini’s theory of velayat-e faqih was a radical departure from the dominant Shiite tradition, its practice has contributed to a new era of post-Khomeinism. Second, it examines Shariati’s discourse and a new reading of his thought in the post-revolutionary context. Third, it demonstrates that these discourses differ radically on the three concepts of radicalism, public religion, and state. The conclusion sheds some light on the conditions of Khomeinism after Khomeini, and Shariati’s discourse three decades after the revolution. It suggests that Iran has gradually entered into a new era of post-Islamism.
2006
In 1979 Islamic Revolution human agency triumphed over structural constraints to overthrow the Shah’s autocratic regime. But such a triumph was full of contradictions. The Revolution brought a new regime with a new constitution founded on the exceptionalism created by politics, personality, and perspectives of Ayatollah Khomeini. Under this polity the rule of law is not universal since the office of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of jurist) stands outside the constitution. The struggle within the Islamic Republic in Khatami’s reformist government (1997-2005) represented the efforts of the in-system reformists to bind the office of velayat-e faqih by the constitution. But the reformists failed and the conservative-hardliners consolidated their autocratic rule in June 2005. Paradoxically, the 2005 reversal turning point was coincided with the centennial anniversary of the 1905 Constitutional Revolution, a revolution that divided Iran into a pre-modern and modern era and marked Iran’s f...
This article researches the socio-political roots of the 2009 protests in Iran and the ensuing crisis by looking at the contradictory nature of the state-society relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
2006
2016, Third World Quarterly
Drawing on Laclau’s concept of populist discourse and Gramsci’s ‘national–popular collective will’, and using the case of Iran, this article puts forward the idea of the legacy of subalternity in the context of post-revolution governments. The concept of ‘national–popular collective will’ facilitates an understanding of how the popular subject is constructed and the meanings embedded in that process. It is argued that Islamic Republic elites articulate a populist discourse that constructs the ‘self’ (the Islamic Republic) as synonymous with ‘the people’. Embedded in this discursive construction is a legacy of subalternity that goes back to the 1979 Revolution’s populist discourse.
This article examines the role of corporate identity in Iran’s foreign policy making. Drawing on interviews with Iranian stakeholders and an analysis of Iran’s political developments, this article surveys the three key elements of Iranian nationalism that shape Iranian foreign policy: Iranism, Islam and Shi’ism. This article finds that each of these is crucial in explaining the apparent contradictions in the approaches of several significant Iranian leaders, especially in cases where Iranism collides with religious values. By highlighting how each component is at once unique but still intrinsically linked to the others, this article demonstrates how Iran’s foreign policy choices can be understood in relation to its corporate identity.
2012, Iran : from theocracy to the Green Movement
On resurgent state nationalism and the question of ethnic minorities in post-revolutionary Iran.
we tried to explain that what are the differences between Iranian Democracy and Turkey Democracy .
2018, IRAN, Journal of the British Institute for Persian Studies
This article discusses how May Day posters, released by the Islamic Republican Party of Iran (which represented the core of Ayatollah Khomeini’s supporters in terms of state power between 1979 and 1987), started to express a new socially constructed identity for workers within the factory. By tracking hidden meanings and the particular use of visual language, it investigates why various styles and symbols were woven together.
2020, The Regional Order in the Gulf Region and the Middle East
2015, The Issue of Madhism within Shia Ideology and Ahmadinejad’s Doctrine
ABSTRACT: I will attempt to argue in this paper that the rise of Mahdism within Shi’a political Islam during Ahmadinejad’s era did not lead to a significant break with previous development. Relevance of Mahdism within Shi’a politicized and ideologized Islam in Iran has been on the rise since the second half of 20th century. The issue occurred in Shi’a political philosophy and theory prior to the Islamic revolution in Iran. In the post-revolutionary period, Mahdism became an inherent part of the Islamic political system. I also argue that rising emphasis on Mahdism during Ahmadinejad’s political career could be explained by the complexity of political, cultural, economical and also religious factors. The article is firstly aimed at conceptualization of the Shi’a political Islam in Iran and on Mahdism in general. Secondly, the paper focuses on the rise of Mahdism within the Shi’a political Islam in the second half of the 20th century. In this regard, the role of political philosopher Ali Shariati and theoretician Ayatollah Khomeini are also investigated. After that, revolutionary and post-revolutionary Iran regarding the issue of Mahdism is also evaluated in the text. At the end, the article analyzes, explains and summarizes the causes and “timing” of the rise of political Mahdism into political doctrine during Ahmadinejad’s recent presidentship in Iran.
Emerging Militant Islamic Autocracy Republic of Iran An autocracy is a system of government in which a supreme political power is concentrated in the hands of one person. His decisions are neither subject to external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control. Autocracy is any form of government in which one person is the supreme power within the state.
2020, Asian Affairs (The Journal of The Royal Society for Asian Affairs)
This article highlight and evaluate the ever-the changing dynamics of political protests and state repression in Iran. It does so by providing the historical context of protests in Iran to assess the ways in which Iran's political climate and protests have evolved over the last four decades. The changing dynamics of the protests are the result of the existing political gridlock and the economic crisis and other prevailing conditions, which have paved the way for the radicalization of the political climate in Iran. The discussion includes the recent US killing of General Suleimani and the subsequent shooting down of the Ukranian passenger plane over Tehran, and the public reaction to these events.
James Barry analyzes political discourse among Iranians in Iran and California and argues that community- and national-level discourses can be seen as competing unitary languages—counter-posed monologues—that allow for heteroglossia only in limited ways. Beginning at the national level, he observes how official language about commitment to the Revolution, and Iran’s status as an Islamic republic, attempts to generate the centripetal force that will pull the nation together. Such discourse is taken up in several ways, including enthusiastic endorsement by political leaders, qualified commentary by observers who ask why Iranians are failing to live up to their ideals, and, quite simply, being ignored as “background noise” by people who know it is fruitless to challenge what the government says. At the community level, Barry describes how leaders of the Armenian community craft unitary language to depict Armenians as people who speak a certain way, worship in a certain way (they are Christians within a nation that defines itself as Islamic), yet have displayed notable loyalty to the Iranian national ideal. The subject of ethnic groups is nettlesome for the country’s leaders; the Ayatollah Khomeini claimed that the division of Islam’s global ummah into separate nations was a colonial divide-and-rule strategy, and this idea inflects the understanding of ethnicity as a potential problem within the Islamic Republic. Nonetheless, Barry observes, the government attempts to enfold Armenians as loyal subjects by acknowledging their contributions to the Revolution and sacrifices during the 1980s war with Iraq. Ultimately, a limited space of heteroglossic identity discourse, sharply demarcated by the “red lines” of national taboo, emerges for Armenian Iranians
This Article is part of an MA thesis: " Iran Wilayat al Faqih System of Governance and Public Policymaking " which tried to investigate the challenges that public policy in Iran is facing under Wilayat al Faqih system of governance. The article here deals with foreign policy making in Iran from Khatami to Ahmadinejad in regards to both Iran regional roleand Iran-U.S. relations. It sheds light on the challenges that are facing Iranian foreign policy making which can affect both the regime and the ideology of Wilayat al Faqih itself. It also, discusses series of problems that are challenging the authority of the supreme leader which resulted in a power struggle between the supreme leader (representative of the Wilayat al Faqih institution) and the president (representative of the Republican institution) inside the system of governance when it comes to policymaking. The contradictory roles between both is a result of the president limited power in formulating foreign policies, together with his ideological preferences that is different from the supreme leader. The Article concludes by stating that such power struggle between the offices may impact Iran's domestic policies but not Iranian foreign policies, as Iran is becoming a regional power.
2014, Caribbean Journal of International Relations and Diplomacy
2011, Politics, Religion & Ideology
2008, … Journal of Criminology and Sociological Theory
This paper examines the complex and dialectal interactions between structural and agential factors and how they help or hinder democratization in contemporary Iran. The paper provides an operational definition of structure and agency by subdividing each into three levels of ...
Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, sought to chart out an independent course for Iran in regional and global affairs: 'neither East, nor West, the Islamic Republic.' The independent course, as he defined it, consisted of two integral components – political and economic independence from the imperialist West, and the sovereign freedom of Iranians to define and control Iran's fate solely on their own. Khomeini's successors have often attempted to compromise with the West by undertaking economic reforms aimed at reintegrating Iran into the imperialistic capitalist world economy. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed in mid-July 2015, brings Iran new opportunities but it also greatly compromises the ideological, philosophical and economic foundations of Khomeini's Islamic Republic. After four decades of anti-imperialist struggle, Iran has now largely come back to the fold of imperialism.
2015
About the Book The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has been dubbed the ‘kingmaker’ in recent studies of Iranian politics, precipitating heated debates surrounding the potential militarization of the Iranian regime and giving rise to paradoxical understandings of the IRGC; whether as a military institution entering politics, or a political institution with a military history. Revolutionary Guards in Iranian Politics offers a way out of this paradox by showing that the IRGC is not a recently politicized institution, but has instead been highly politicized since its inception. It identifies the ways in which the IRGC relates to national political dynamics, examines the factors contributing to this relationship, and its implications on Iranian politics from the revolution up to the present day. The book examines the three decades following the revolution, uncovering the reasons behind the rise of the Revolutionary Guards and tracking the organization’s evolving relationship with politics. Establishing a theoretical framework from revolution and civil-military relations theories, this book provides new perspectives on the relationship between the IRGC and Iranian politics. This book would be of interest to students and scholars of Middle East Studies and Iranian Studies, in particular Iranian Politics. https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138853645
2019, World Journal of Social Science Research
This paper is going to explain Wilayat al Faqih (Iranian) system of governance by looking at it from institutional and elite theory approach. The paper will try also to look at the so called “president dilemma” within Wilayat al Faqih system of governance, which is represented by the power struggle between the institution of the supreme leader and the institution of the president in public policy making. This power struggle revealed the weakness of the ideology and the institution of Wilayat al Faqih founded by the leader of the Iranian revolution, Khomeini. And became to open the door for many questions of whether or not the Wilayat al Faqih ideology and institution can lead to a constitutional crisis, if not what kind of future is held for both the institution of the supreme leader and the institution of the president under its system?
2020
This book examines the unintended consequences of top-down reforms in Iran, analysing how the Iranian reformist governments (1997–2005) sought to utilise gradual reforms to control independent activism, and how citizens responded to such a disciplinary action. While the governments successfully ‘set the field’ of permitted political participation, part of the civil society that took shape was unexpectedly independent. Despite being a minority, independent activists were not marginal: without them, in fact, the Green Movement of 2009 would not have taken shape. Building on in-depth empirical analysis, the author explains how autonomous activism forms and survives in a semi-authoritarian country. The book contributes to the debate about the implications of elite-led reforms for social reproduction, offering an innovative interpretation and an original analysis of social movements from a political science perspective.
2017
This study seeks to determine how the Islamic Republic of Iran (‘the IRI’) has survived despite the multitude of forces seeking its ouster and vulnerability of prior twentieth century Iranian governments to regime change. The IRI’s survival has puzzled many analysts especially due to the regime’s reported domestic unpopularity. That the IRI has survived longer than any other twentieth century Iranian regime is even more unusual when compared to its predecessors. Pre-1979 Iranian regimes enjoyed foreign support and fell when those external forces became hostile in 1921, 1941 and 1953 or wavered in 1979. In contrast, the IRI has not only lacked substantial foreign support but has faced formidable external challengers like the United States. Two relationships effectively explain the IRI’s survival. The first is between the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (‘IRGC’). This ensures that the regime has the enforcers to quell domestic unrest and project power internationally to weaken actors seeking regime change. The nature of this relationship prevents a military takeover, as the IRGC’s ideology requires the pre-eminence of the Supreme Leader. The second is between the regime and the general public (particularly the poor). This ensures that the regime does not face mass dissatisfaction, as the last Shah did in 1979. The IRI has balanced repression, populism, pragmatism, and popular legitimacy (frequently with elections) and appeasement. Further, the Islamic Republic began with an advantage: regimes resulting from mass revolutions are traditionally difficult for foreign powers to overthrow due to the regime’s dedication and popular support. After the Shah’s overthrow, the clerics contended with numerous armed post-revolutionary factions. As a result of superior popular support, unifying the country behind anti-Americanism and the war effort against Iraq’s invasion, the clerical regime won the post-revolutionary struggle against its domestic armed opponents. After the war with Iraq and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death, the IRI moderated its policies while promoting socio-economic populism to prevent mass discontent. The new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, addressed his legitimacy shortcomings by turning to the IRGC. Although no longer an IRGC member upon his appointment as Supreme Leader, Khamenei had positive personal relationships with IRGC officials due to his supervision of the organization in its early days. Internationally, the IRI projected power and exploited American foreign policy blunders to forge a geopolitical situation that made it prohibitively costly for foreign powers to topple the Islamic Republic. Further, the Iranian landmass is difficult to invade due to its unique and formidable geography. Additionally, the IRI, by fostering relations with militias throughout the Middle East (e.g. the Lebanese Hezbollah), has created asymmetric trip wires that would cause intense instability against an invading power throughout the Middle East. An overt military action against the IRI then, would not only result in the invader facing an intensely difficult campaign on Iranian soil but also a series of pro-Iranian guerrilla campaigns outside Iranian territory.
2007
This study explores issues surrounding the potential for the privatisation of some of Iran’s national institutions. In particular, it addresses the issue of what the determinants of the Iranian policy of privatisation are, in order to ascertain whether there is the political will to privatise the Iranian oil and gas industry. In order to answer this question, this study takes a three-pronged approach which relies on multiple methodologies. It begins by providing a theoretical basis for the determination of privatisation policy. Subsequently, it explores a set of international precedents that bind the possibilities of privatisation policy. It then presents an historical outlook on Iran since World War II in order to build a context for the determinants of privatisation policy in Iran. This historical analysis is based on a political economy framework. Finally, the specific background, legal and institutional framework, and policy-maker perspectives are incorporated into the overall a...
2019, Iranian Studies
This paper explores the transformations of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s dominant narratives on labor between 1979 and 2009. By analyzing official May Day speeches of this period, it navigates multiple constructions of workers’ roles, which were systematically propagated by the IRI’s Supreme Leader and president over time. The analysis relies on the following primary sources: from the 1979 May Day sermon, pronounced by Ruhollah Khomeini, to the 2009 speech given by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, together with messages sent by Ali Khamenei, Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami. Showing how workers’ role—understood as a collective and distinct group—was gradually minimized, this paper argues that a bottom-up cleaning up process slowly purified May Day. In fact, the IRI progressively neglected workers as (revolutionary) social actors and interlocutors, as it stopped talking to masses and started speaking to middle classes.
2017, Jacobin
2020, Political Science Quarterly
Leman, Johan & Gino Schallenbergh (eds), ‘Between change and continuity in Iran’, in Muslims and Public Space Citizenship, Cornell UP, 2015.
2020, Kairos
The 1979 Revolution in Iran succeeded due to a unique cross-class coalition of social forces and an interparty alliance of opposition groups with heterogeneous backgrounds and diverging interests such as the anti-imperialist National Front, anti-west traditionalist clerics and the anti-Capitalist Tudeh Party, bound together by a common enemy: 'The Shah' and his Pahlavi regime. This essay attempts to illuminate the ideological grounds and socioeconomic context which gave impetus to the formation of this unprecedented alliance in defeating the enemy but also to the irreversible historical failure in establishing a democratic political system in Iran. Considering the longstanding civic resistance of the nationalist parties and armed struggles of the leftist organisations against the Pahlavi regime, many opponents of Khomeini have argued that he took over the Revolution in the name of Islamist supporters. Taking into account the co-presence of leftist ideology and Islamic worldview among the active political forces on the ground of the Revolution, this essay proposes that Khomeini's pragmatic populism enabled him to appropriate a large part of leftist discourse into his theory of political Islam to articulate a socialist Islamism which would mobilise the lower middle class of the Iranian Muslim society. Simultaneously, some leftist organisations and Iran's intelligentsia incorporated Islamic values and Shi'a mythology into their Marxist ideology to introduce an Islamic Marxism which would speak to more educated Muslim revolutionary forces. The essay suggests that Islamic Marxism and socialist Islamism-as two sides of the same coin of populism-were driving forces of the pervasive protests which ultimately amounted to the 1979 Revolution in Iran.
2007
This thesis expands the discussion on Iranian national identity into the period of Khatami’s presidency. Within the theoretical and methodological framework of discourse analysis this thesis contends that the multiple constructions of Iranian national identity, which coexist and compete with each other, can be better understood as discourses. The detailed analysis of five discourses of national identity illustrates a complex set of relationships based on the meanings attached to Iran’s Islamic and pre-Islamic identities and how the West is dealt with in the construction of national identity. The first discourse addressed is the Islamist discourse of national identity, which prioritises Iran’s Islamic culture. At the opposite end of the spectrum the Iranist discourse, which is based on the prioritisation of Iran’s pre-Islamic culture, is deconstructed. It is contended that this represents a new indigenous Iranism that is based on a rediscovery of Sasanian Iran as opposed to Achaemeni...
This article examines the secularization thesis of Iran's faqih-headed revolutionary Islamic state, as put forward by Sa'id Hajjarian (1954–), against the institutional and political developments in the post-Khomeini period. His thesis posited that the religious state in postrevolutionary Iran, with its official doctrine of the absolute mandate of the jurisprudent, serves as the most important accelerator in the two-part process of secularization of the traditional institutions and jurisprudence of Shiism as well as of the faqih-headed Islamic state. The article finds that the developments in the post-Khomeini period have generally confirmed the logic and insights of Hajjarian's thesis and suggests that the secularizing trends will likely continue as long as this particular state is in place.
2013, Palgrave Macmillan
Tehran's complicated relationship with its ethnic sub-groups has been a pressing security concern since the formation of modern Iran in 1925. This concern is intimately linked with issues related to citizenship, democracy, and democratic political processes, which remain fundamental to Iran's political structure and the Iranian political sphere. This book argues that, while the Islamic Republic has employed various strategies to mitigate the worst excesses of inter-ethnic tension while still securing a Shi'a-Persian dominated state, the systematic neglect of ethnic groups by both the Islamic Republic and its predecessor regime has resulted in the politicization of ethnic identity in Iran.
2017, Contemporary Islam
A number of studies have examined the role of the economically marginalized classes in the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the events which transpired in its immediate aftermath. It has been suggested that the mass mobilization of these classes, often referred to collectively as the mostazafin (downtrodden) in the official literature of the Islamic Republic, was instrumental in the success of the revolution and the subsequent establishment of the Islamic Republic under the leadership of Ruhollah Khomeini. The present paper contrasts Shi'i liberation theology and Shi'i Islamism as two distinct pro-mostazafin discourses that emerged in mid-and late-twentieth century Iran, and which facilitated the participation of the lower-and under-classes in the revolutionary movement. It argues that while it was developed originally by Shi'i liberation theologians, Islamist forces were able to successfully appropriate the pro-mostazafin discourse and gain the support of the economically marginalized classes in the crucial final phase of the revolution, and in doing so create an important social base for their political power.
2005, Australian Journal of International Affairs