Political Quarterly
Year:2016 | Volume:46 | Issue:3 |Papers Count:14

Using virtual social media and networks widely and relations based on electronic communication have transformed political and social activities in recent decades. The current essay aims to review the effects of virtual social media on the field of politics in Iran. Therefore, this essay propounds the questions: "how has the virtual social media caused transformation on the field of politics in Iran? What is the effective evidence of such media?" In reply to these questions, this hypothesis is propounded that virtual social media provided the possibility of direct activities for the Iranian citizens in the political field of the country by putting power on the citizen’s hand on the one side. On the other side, these media through easing possibility for individual activity make such a possibility for the Iranian activists to be independent to some extent and to challenge formal viewpoints. Considering the nature of the propounded questions, we have utilized a mixed method for study in this research. Through this, by review and describing views of intellectuals such as Lyotard, Baudrillard, Castells and Bakhtin, we are trying to examine the propounded hypothesis. At this direction, the evidence for debate includes the tenth presidential elections and urban carnival in Tehran parks that were carried out through arrangements by a group of youth on the virtual social networks.

Development of the modern education system and Iranian high interest in studying the new science and broad government support government over the last century of the modern educational system, and high costs to expand and improve its quality by no means imply the entrance of science and scientific attitude to Iranian relations. System of economic production and social relations and political structure of modern knowledge continues to exist independently with reliance on traditional ties with. Iran. The modern science bond with everyday life in European Life World gave an undeniable role to modern science in modern life which Iranian Life World never experienced.

With the intensification of violent terrorist operations in the world, many academic researchers have been performed in terms of the structural causes of terrorism. The active area of terrorism does not only include physical variables but other variables such as ideological, psychological, environmental and cultural-identity should also be tracked. The reasons are complex and varied regarding the phenomenon of terrorism and its roots cannot be explained in a particular area of research. A theoretical framework is used for explaining the formation of terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East.

The question of the relation between the concept of "right" and "good" and the precedence of each about another has been one of the important issues of normative ethics. Since the fundamental issues of ethics are not restricted to the personal ethics and the responses to them will be applied in political thoughts, the question of this essay has led to intellectual trends and prescriptions in political thought, especially justice studies. Studying some important western opinions and theories of justice from antiquity to the present by a descriptive-analytical method, the essay purports to illustrate that the thinkers, whether they have faced the question of right and good as a direct problem, have always tended to one side of the dilemma (right and good) and their attitude toward the dilemma had a central role in the formation of their opinions about justice.

The current research aims to consider the importance of decision maker level of analysis in the study of foreign policy. This capability is created in regard to the role of man in foreign policy and international relations theories. However, the main research question is whether the decision maker level of analysis will be the theoretical support for the analysis of foreign policy and what the benefits of decision maker level of analysis in the study of foreign policy are. This research, in addition to a positive response to the above question, argues that the rely of decision maker level of analysis can solve the level of analysis problem, complete the models of decision- making and ultimately be helpful in the possibility of theoretical synthesis between the material and semantic factors.

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, a great number of Islamic jurists entered the political scene, an event which put Iranian politics to a great extent under a legalist approach. Considering the structure of law and the way jurists look at reality, they have a different type of personality from other politicians. Using the ideal type method, this paper attempts to study Islamic jurists’ personality and their specifications in their worldview, methods and resources. This type of personality can impact their political approach and behavior. It is generally concluded that once Islamic jurists enter politics, they are relatively more definite and more decisive, less compromising, more conservative, more duty-based, more predictable, more technicalist and finally more literalist.

Iranian Islamic revolution since its victory has been analyzed from different perspectives but in these analyses, the theoretic point of view and searching a theoretic foundation for the revolution has been neglected. In fact, most of the books and articles on the Iranian revolution interpret it as a political and social phenomenon and based on this view, political, economic and social causes of the Iranian revolution have been studied. On the other hand, some thinkers believe that the Iranian revolution is the ideological or discursive system and we should look for its causes in socio- economic conflicts or the strategy of repression, exclusion and making other on behalf of adversaries' discourses. The authors in this dissertation believe that the reason of lack of theoretic analysis and theoretic foundation of the Iranian revolution is rooted in negligence presented in Dr. Shariati' books and writings among the research resources on the Islamic revolution. These writings provide theoretical resources for phenomenon of Islamic revolution.

Nationalism and modernism, and the relationship between them from the perspective of different scholars and schools of thought have always been a subject of debate. Many scholars have concerned themselves with the concepts of ethnicity, nation, and nationalism and their relationship with modernism and modern age. The main controversy among scholars and schools of thought has been centered on the issue of whether the formation of nation, as it is with nationalism, is a function of modernism or not. While the most illustrious exponents of the modernist approach see a causal relationship between nationalism and nation-state, some scholars such as Anthony Smith have criticized such a view. This paper is an attempt to investigate Anthony Smith’s and modernists’ viewpoint on nationalism and modernism. The main theme is that while modernists consider nation and nationalism to be the products of the changes of the modern era, Anthony Smith, although definitely recognizes some relationship between nationalism and modernism, does not establish a causal relationship between these two phenomena. More specifically, he does not conclude that nation is an inevitable result of modernism.

The digital revolution as a great transformation is leading to the formation of new spaces for the political action. This paper was intended to criticize the viewpoint which would uncritically consider digital politics to be the bedrock for the creation of general area and the formation and establishment of democracy finally. In contrast to this optimistic approach, the experience of Arab revolutions indicated that both digital tools and social networks caused various impacts during the different phases of such experiences. The impacts were quick and severe when the Arab authoritarian regimes started to collapse, and they dwindled away in the formation phase of the alternative democratic system. Finally, the capabilities of such networks were misused as a tool to spread the ethnic and religious hatred and to escalate violence. It has been argued that the diversity of results caused by the promotion of digital politics in various states had to be analyzed as a consequence occurring when the social structure and certain politics of each society would face this phenomenon. According to the theory of "weak states-strong societies", it was demonstrated how the structural weakness of states and a completely dispersed and incoherent society in the Middle East had to be considered the key to understanding the quick and severe impact of the digital politics in the collapse phase of Arab authoritarian regimes. It was also indicated why such tools would become the factors intensifying the process of political decay in such countries when their revolutions were derailed.

Many political concepts as well as technology entered various regions of the world from Europe after renaissance, industrial revolution and Protestantism. Meanwhile, western technology and concepts of political philosophy came to Iran since nineteenth century. Republicanism was one of these concepts. This concept and idea as one of the most important factors in Iranian contemporary political-social transformations since its introduction in Qajar era till Islamic revolution has diversely been interpreted. The current paper aims to study these approaches.

This paper is an attempt to examine, with narrative explanation technique, the notion of the "other" in the history of Iran's foreign relations from the perspective of Historical Sociology in International Relations. It covers the historical period following the founding of the Safavid state in 1502 A.D. through the first decade of the Islamic Republic (1989 A.D.). From the perspective of how the "other" is perceived, and based on theoretical and methodological considerations, Iran's foreign relations are divided into three periods; in the Safavid period, it is the internal events that affect the way the "other" is perceived. In the Qajar and Pahlavi eras, however, it is the external developments that shape the way the "other" is seen. In the Islamic Republic, it is both the internal and external events that affect this perception of the "other" in the country’s foreign relations. Based on the above- mentioned ideas, it is suggested that the perception of the "other" in Iran’s foreign relations go through the phases of emergence, transformation, and establishment within a framework of a chain of narratives regarding internal and external developments. In this process, one should also consider the role of human beings, and the main decision-making actors and their influence on the perception of the "other". It is suggested that during the Safavid period, it is the inter-religious conflicts vis-a-vis the Sunni Ottoman Empire that shape the perception of the "other". This perception was transformed during the Qajar and Pahlavi eras in confrontation with major colonial powers of the 19th century and continued during the Cold War era. Finally, it reached its peak and was institutionalized in the first decade of the Islamic Republic. To sum up, affected by the internal and the external events, the "other" evolves from the construction phase to the establishment phase in the history of Iran’s foreign relations.

Analysis of the continued success of the moderate Islamic discourse over other discourses in Turkey in a social environment where secularism and Western orientation has been the basis of social, political and cultural changes is the central issue of many articles. This article goes beyond the ideological debates in the analysis of this fundamental change in this Country as a long process. The main question of this paper is "what is the main moderate Islamic discourse over other discourses in Turkey?" The main hypothesis of this paper is the transformation of Turkish political culture in the shadow of adjustment of the gap savailable in this country is the most important factor in overcoming the political and social discourse in such a Jacobon secular-oriented structure.

One of most important socio-political events in Iranian History is constitutional Revolution in spite of passage of more than one century and writing many books and articles about that, there are still unknown facts about the issue. One of these unknown issues is the role of one of Kerman Olamas named "Mirza Mohammad Reza Mojtahed" in the revolution. In the small migration, protestors wanted the government to bring him back from the deportation. His name was mentioned as one of the leaders of the revolution in some books written about the revolution. Author describes his role in Kerman socio-political development in the era of the revolution. The findings show that he was one of the effective actors in Kerman but contrary to the common thought he was not Liberal and Constitutionalist. According to a Realistic approach, his role is related to the event of his punishing and hitting by then Kerman governor. This event gave the opportunity to the protesters to protest against Eynoddowla and his dictatorship.

Since the beginning of human history, one of the basic dilemmas that every political institution must solve is how to exercise legitimate authority- that is, how to govern with the consent. "You can’t sit on bayonets," goes an old political expression. This is a way of saying that although a state can exercise its power through the use of police force or coercion, in the long run the use of force will not be sufficient to govern a society. For political sociologists since Weber’s time, the answer to this question begins with the concept of legitimacy. According to discussions considered in this paper, and Historical review of two systems- Achaemenid and Sassanid- we can conclude that thought in Iranian social from Achaemenid to Sassanid was evolving and according to weber's idea, although LEGAL AUTHORITY is for modern society, the thought that political authority comes ‘from below’ and the concept of social contract existed in ancient iran.