Political Quarterly
Year:2010 | Volume:39 | Issue:4|Papers Count:19

Student organizations are active at social, political, cultural and welfare areas of student life. They have individual and systematic functions in those areas of student life. They have individual and systematic functions in that area too. Their presence in university is necessary. This article describes their important functions. Student organizations are active at social, political, cultural and welfare areas of student life. They have individual and systematic functions in those areas of student life. They have individual and systematic functions in that area too. Their presence in university is necessary. This article describes their important functions. Student organizations are active at social, political, cultural and welfare areas of student life. They have individual and systematic functions in those areas of student life. They have individual and systematic functions in that area too. Their presence in university is necessary. This article describes their important functions.

Criticizing the drawbacks of modern societies, Lyotard glorifies the changing of meta-narration to show lack of such narrations totally. For him such a condition or changing of sub-narrations to periphery ones gives him an opportunity to self-expression and survival chance, which by intention to solidarity, stability, etc. They have been deprived of their identity, but keeping eternality of such pluralism and variety needs a pattern, not only to survive such a condition, but also to its supporting: who seems his pluralistic, democratic pattern to here such a power and violence. However his democratic theory has not been corrected explicitly, which deserves to be searched through his theories and impressions. Therefore Lyotard's democratic pluralistic theory is based on cognition and sociology which deserves consideration.

Taking into consideration the fact that convergence of the Kurds and Shiites on the national security and interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a vital necessity, the exact knowledge of nature and category of such a coalition might assist the state security policymaking so that by a better understanding of such a strategy and by comprehension of sensitivity of this opportunity, the policies might be made and the essential actions might be taken for formation and strengthening of such a convergence. In this article, in addition to knowledge of the exquisite and exact nature of convergence of Kurds and Shiites in Iraq and its impact on the security policymaking in Iran, the precise nature of necessity of such a policymaking will be stipulated and at the end, the opportunities which will be consequently granted to Iran will be mentioned.

Among others internal, regional, international, political, economic, technical, social and cultural factors are reasons that theorists introduce for beginning of integration at a region. By looking at the functions of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), we understand that there are two basic pragmatic factors, the support of the great powers and political-security measures. All these factors can be causes for the continuity of regional cooperation and integration in Central Asia and Southwest Asia. The special circumstances, the security of these regions and the ruling international structure have influenced the two mentioned organizations The special circumstances, the security of these regions and the ruling international structure have influenced the two mentioned organizations

Rapid economic and steady high rates of economic growth has drastically increased the need for imported oil in Asia-Pacific region; China -an oil exporting country in the region till 1993- is now the third oil importer of the world with the neighboring Japan being in the second place. South Korea as the world’s ninth oil importer consumes almost as much as the entire oil production of oil exporting countries such as Kuwait, UAE or Venezuela. Supply diversification policies has already met their limits for the region as the African and Russian oil productions have provided nothing but a small portion of the Asia-Pacific’s ever-increasing energy needs and therefore the region’s dependence to Middle East oil exports has been increasing rapidly and constantly.

This research was done for understanding Islamic fundamentalism and its relationship with violence. Islamic fundamentalism has had significant developments since its appearance at the turn of the 19th century. The most important development is its radicalization in recent decades. In this article, the author addresses the roots and principles of Islamic fundamentalism, its main theorists and its developments in the way of getting more violent since the 1970s. He also deals with the effective factors in the radicalization of the mentioned phenomenon. The author criticizes the alleged relationship between Islam and violence. It must be mentioned that this research is focused on Sunni Islam

Social capital that exists in relations among social actors and the existence of fortified civil society, with a modern, powerful and developmental state can advance the development process in developing countries with minimum damage and in shortest time. The elements are the three sides of one single triangle. If unity and balance exist and an organic relationship is made between those elements, it can be expected that those countries will access to development. Weakness of each of them or making one of them weak will result in many anomalies in the development process, and finally the weakness or making each of the three elements weak will institutionalize underdevelopment. Deliberation and rethinking the quality of these three sides of achieving development and adopting suitable strategy for strengthening them may be the best pattern to achieve a sustainable development.

Post-Zionism is one of the intellectual trends and new discourses which have appeared in Israel in recent decades. On the impacts of post-Zionism on the future of Israel, there are different opinions: some scholars say post-Zionism is positive for Israel and a resolution for all its problems, while others say it is negative for Israel and may create bigger crises in the Zionist state. With regard to these opinions, in this article the impact of post-Zionism on the Israel is explained. Post-Zionism is one of the intellectual trends and new discourses which have appeared in Israel in recent decades. On the impacts of post-Zionism on the future of Israel, there are different opinions: some scholars say post-Zionism is positive for Israel and a resolution for all its problems, while others say it is negative for Israel and may create bigger crises in the Zionist state.

There is an idea among some scholars which refers to democracy and secularism as two inseparable things. According to this viewpoint any democracy is and should be secular. In spite of this, a different hypothesis has been taken into consideration on this paper. Based upon this hypothesis "The type of relationship between democracy and secularism depends on the demands of determinant social forces." This study has been conducted by the sociological research methods. Therefore, the democratic experiences of France and Iran have been studied through comparative perspective. The findings approve the hypothesis. So it could be said that there is no necessary relationship between democracy and secularism.

Political attitudes of bureaucrats and their impact on performance have been one of the most important debates in public administration that have been studied in Dichotomy of Politics-Administration. In this article, we examine the effect of political attitudes of bureaucrats on their organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The results show that political attitudes have a significant correlation with OCB and bureaucrats that belong to the ruling party exhibit more OCB than others. The results show that political attitudes have a significant correlation with OCB and bureaucrats that belong to the ruling party exhibit more OCB than others. The results show that political attitudes have a significant correlation with OCB and bureaucrats that belong to the ruling party exhibit more OCB than others.

Slavophilism is described as a manifestation of national consciousness among Russian intellectuals at the early 19th century. The aim of this article is to furnish a ground for understanding Slavophilism as an attempt by a group of Russian educated elites to confront the intellectual Identity Crisis. For the explanation of this idea, the article begins with a discussion of the different aspects of the crisis and emergence of slavophilism in the framework of modernization theories. It argues, then, that the question of national identity was a discourse on Russia’s future merely among educated elites, not as a broad sentiment among the ordinary people. The article, ultimately, addresses the influence of Romanticism on Slavophilism. It establishes that Romantic ideas and concepts shaped the identity crisis and at the same time provided the material of a new intellectual agenda to confront the crisis.

In the Middle East since the end of the WW II, we have witnessed a growing influence of the military in civilian affairs, the use of force as a frequently-used instrument of political power and dominance, the importance of military values, the increasing significance of the role of the regional military establishment in domestic and international affairs, and the growth in the number of paramilitary organizations. The occurrence of the 1999 military coup in Pakistan, the irrepressible militarization of Israeli foreign policy, the transfer of huge quantities of military equipment to the region along with the presence of foreign military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan indicate that the age of military intervention in politics and the threat of military coup in the Middle East are far from over.

Identity has emerged gradually within contemporary debates in social science and has led to vivid debates in International Relations. The aim of this article is to show how identity, or identity-oriented approach, may affect fundamental theoretical concepts of IR. At first the importance of identity in theoretical and meta-theoretical debates in IR is discussed. Then identity itself is conceptualized. On the basis of a distinction made between political and normative impacts of identity, the next two sections examine the ways in which they have influenced changes in theoretical concepts such as power, security, sovereignty and diplomacy as well as normative ones such as human rights and ethics.

This article, after explaining the concept of peace building in the framework of United Nations peace operations, considers the challenges facing it. Peace operations are a complex and inter-related set of activities which lack clear legal status in the United Nations charter, but are accessible instruments for the maintenance of international peace and security. Despite the fact that peace building is a practical approach for the maintenance of peace and security and its positive achievements cannot be denied, it has been confronted with many challenges that diminish its effectiveness. These challenges relate to many factors, the most basic of which is global apartheid: an unjust international order. In addition, the belief also exists that it threatens a new form of western colonialism. In the framework of Western-based institutionalization, based on the liberalism that seeks to impose peace in other societies, it imposes peace without attention to their culture.

Economic recession is considered as a repeatable and constant phenomenon in capitalist economy. Countries which experienced rapid economic growth have inevitably applied a balancing program after that. Generally, whenever industrial, financial and commercial developments occurred in a rapid growth, the reverse and changing processes would appear. Consequently, they will affect the financial and international trade market. In the mid-1990s, global economy has faced different situations from the limited recession to the recovery or reconstruction period. Among the industrial countries, those which have not enough trends to activate economy with productive approach have had a severe recession. In other words, the United States and European countries help global financial economy.

The Ninth constitution of Afghanistan (1382/2003) was ratified according to the Bone Agreement and with a democratic orientation. This paper compares the principles of this constitution with principles of two models of Liberal Democracy. For this purpose, five indexes have been used for our analysis: The view on Man, The notion of Right, Political System, Democracy, and the process for the actualization of Democracy. According to the results of this study, Afghanistan's new Constitution corresponds to both models of Liberal Democracy. The Ninth constitution of Afghanistan (1382 /2003) was ratified according to the Bone Agreement and with a democratic orientation. This paper compares the principles of this constitution with principles of two models of Liberal Democracy. For this purpose, five indexes have been used for our analysis: The view on Man, The notion of Right, Political System, Democracy, and the process for the actualization of Democracy.

One of the major categories of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution is modernists (motajadedin) who are referred to variously as “adaptionists”, “apologists”, “syncretists” and “revisionists”. Motajadedin are devout and knowledgeable Iranians whose mission is threefold: first, to define Iranian identity by bringing out of the fundamentals in rational and liberal manner; second, to emphasize, among others, basic elements of modern ideals of freedom, tolerance, fraternity, law, secularism and nationalism; and third, to interpret the context of social tradition in such a way as to bring out is dynamic character in the context of the intellectual and scientific progress of the modern world. In contrast to traditionalists, concerned with maintaining of the status quo, and to the reformer Islamists, motajadedin sincerely endeavored to reconcile differences between traditional religious doctrine and secular scientific rationalism, between unquestioning faith and rational logic, and between the continuity of Islamic tradition and modernity.

This paper tries to explore and asses the political party activities in Iran after the Islamic revolution. It believes that that formation of political parties was a result of political modernization in Iran after the revolution. The authors further examine this modernization based on Huntington's theory about modernization including stages of faction creation (factionalism), polarization, extension and Institutionalization. The development of parties in Iran is at extension stage and has not already entered the Institutionalization level. The process of party creation which mostly got no bigger than their primary founders is a proof.

Economic development's driving force in each country is usually industrial development based on the advantages of the country. Iran is ranked number two globally in oil and gas resources. Aluminum industry is the most important energy consuming industry. Aluminum is one of the strategic metals which is produced through electrolysis and is named as energy storage. Due to its outstanding properties and versatile applications, Aluminum is a very important part of different industries. Also development of energy consuming industries is emphasized in the general policies of the 4th Economic, Social and cultural Development Plan of Iran. In this paper, factors affecting this industry will be identified, evaluated and analyzed through field investigation, interviews, direct observations and questionnaires.