Political Quarterly
Year:2006 | Volume:- | Issue:73|Papers Count:12

The eight year war between Iran and Iraq is a sensitive and critical period in Iran's foreign policy, particularly towards the European Community. Accordingly and in spite of the fact that the foundations of the new regime in Iran have not been consolidated, a full scale war, was imposed on Iran, overshadowing all policies and plans including Iran's foreign policy. This paper tries to examine the relations towards Iran. The changes in European Community's approach have been under the influence of two factors: its own national interest and the United States' views towards Iran and the war between Iran and Iraq.The paper will also investigate the dominant theme in Iran's foreign policy which was mixed with the revolutionary ideology and led to Iran's self-imposed isolation.

Development of Technology is one of the main factors of political change of the modem world. A technological change could change nature and structure of political arrangements of the society. This restructuring of the society could happen by economic and professional change, by creating new division of labor, by creating new classes and new resources, and so on. In this article, first of all, a definition of innovation and distinction between invention and innovation is elaborated. At the second part of the article a review of theoretical literature is presented. And at the final part of the article the result of the statistical analysis is presented. The results show that institutional variables are more important to explain innovation.

During three last decades, some modem ethical philosophers, called communitarians, reviving Aristotelian virtualistic ethics, have criticized intensively ethical and political views of utilitarian and new - Kantian liberalism. This doctrine, emphasizing on political, ethical and psychological importance of correlations to societies, believes that ethical arguments and judgments must derive from context of cultural perceptions and traditions. In this writing, we will indicate that the thought, committing simultaneously to two percepts of virtualistic ethic and communal identities, has been contradicted, since the first percept, firstly, with its reference in this thought to Aristotelian objectivism in ethical sphere; secondly, with defending by its supporter to release the accusation of relativism, eventually has to be referred to a type of ethical universalism - although in thin. Ethical percepts - while the second percept, communal identity, is the consequence of ethical particularistic.

The emergence and the development of the economic, social and political institutions of EU, all aimed to boarder and deeper the European Integration (EI), are provided a valuable site for the Conceptualization of the EI.An understanding of the development of EU studies as an academic sub discipline is best developed through the explanation of theoretical work, past and present.Heoretical study on European Integration is obviously bound up in complex with the unfolding story of the EU, and is also observed as a conceptual wing of the EU studies movement.Bearing the various considerations in mind, I try to examine some main theoretical approaches which show a respective evolution from grand and comprehensive to partial and multi-level theories.The earliest theories of the El grew up of a classical and intellectual context which was trying to give a comprehensive framework explaining all dimensions through a singe level study. The Dries like Functionalism, Neo functionalism; Transnationalism, Federalism, Interdependence and Intergovemmentalism are classified in the first category.

In The end of twentieth century and The beginning of the third millennium, all political regimes practically for acquiring legitimacy want to introduce themselves as a democratic system. Today there is no question about the truth of the democracy, whether that is fundamentally good or bad? But the question is about the most efficient and the best form of democracy. Nowadays, we can see that all existing patterns of representative democracies on behalf of processes of globalization and their influences are facing with many questions and challenges. Then because of these processes we can see that cosmopolitan landscape of democracy is highlighted. If the nation-states can not control their national politics and economic processes in the name of people, then we can say that, democracy as a ideal type is under question and confronted with challenges. Friedrich Von Hayek was one of the thinkers that with a critical view to the contemporary representative democracies and the existing legislative systems, took efforts to present a new model of plural democracy, till to prepare the possibilities for dialogue, negotiation and democratic participation in the all differantional aspects. He beleived that the best model of democracy that giving a security to liberty is the constitutional or the legal democracy.

Post - colonial studies is among the new studies on third World countries. Post - colonial studies analyses the colonial discourse with a new and critical approach. This article attempts to survey the current situation of third world countries through critical analysis of history and research on colonial governments, the problem of identity and cultural studies.

The study of comparative politics, in the field of political science, has a great significance. This article not only introduces schools of thought which have been phenomena in the history of comparative politics but also surveys the history behind this growth. The present article shall deal with and subsequently explain the success of this field and its current status. The new conceptualization made by some academic researchers, like Tomas Riss, Angelika Scheuer, Lieven De winter and others tries to study the El through a multi - level analysis.

The city-state of the prophet of Islam is a term referring to the new political society established in the city of Yathrib near Mecca by Muslims after their emigration to there in 622 A.D. Yathrib was known as "The City of the Prophet" after that date. This paper is a brief interpretation of a political document from the prophet of Islam that was provided and sanctioned by the emigrants and Prophet's comrades. It is known and recognized as "Sahifah al-Nabi" (The Prophet's Leaf) or the Constitution of Medina. Sahifa al-Nabi was the voucher that guaranteed the citizens' rights and duties as wen as the political unity and security of Medina. In addition, it guaranteed a kind of socio-cultural independence for the tribes in Medina. Sahifa shows that there wa~ a political understanding from the concept of "Ummah" in the early Islamic age; that is to say, disregarding religious opinions, all the tribes and individuals, including Muslims, Jews and even polytheists, who were directly or indirectly the constitue flts of the Treaty/Sahifa, were considered as members of "Ummah" in the Prophet's City-State in Medina. In this paper, I will examine the structure and evolution of the Prophet's City-State on the basis of Ibn-Kathir's book "al-Bedayahva al-Nahayah" and other complementary sources.

Topics such as violence and conflict, especially the huge costs of the war for the people around the world, more important for women, have attracted increasingly global attention in recent decades. Women have permanently been the main victims of the wars and the armed conflicts.They have constantly been humiliated with different kinds of violence. More attention is paid to the role of women for the consolidation and expansion of "the culture of peace". There have been many regional and international conferences on this theme around the world, and the UN institutions have played very active role in this context. In this article, the author examines international developments aimed at the strengthening the role of women for the expansion and consolidation of "the culture of peace".