RESEARCH LETTER OF POLITICAL SCIENSE
Year:2007 | Volume:2 | Issue:1 (6)|Papers Count:11

The Islamic Republic of Iran's foreign policy after the end of Iran-Iraq war became more realistic. Iran as a result of war and especially the superpowers' approach towards it recognized the role of industrial and technological power on the situation and importance of countries in the international system. In this context, this article argues that Iranian decision makers decided to strengthen Iran militarily. The nuclear program of Iran can be interpreted as a way to strengthen Iran's technological and scientific power. This article, using the Realist school in International Relations, seeks to study Iran's foreign, scientific, and technological policies. It seeks to see why Iran started its peaceful nuclear program and then to study its repercussions for the balance of power, security and regional relations in the Persian Gulf.

Corruption is a cancer which is entered in socio - cultural, economic & political fabric of society and lead to disruption in functions. Corruption is an important challenge for modem world and will be found in all of democratic, semi and non democratic political systems with various degree and dimensions. Today, in the age of "global village" and "explosion of information", more than of past, all of political systems have been vulnerable. Economic corruption in democratic systems is accidental versus systemic corruption in non democratic and semi democratic systems; because in these systems, vigorous and independent check and balance institutions are absent, whether formal or informal and civic.In this article, the author tries to explain the impact of neopatrimonial power structure (Soltanism), rentier economy, economic modernization form above and the mechanisms of political influence on economic corruption in Iran in the period of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1963-1979). The method of our inquiry is structural- causal explanation.

Political participation of the youth, as the largest demographic group in iran, constitutes an important as political behavior for the researchers of political behavior and also with regard to rational political administration of Iran's changing society. This article begins with an overview of the most important perspectives on political participation along with a general schema of various forms of political behavior. Then, based 0 the findings of a survey on the forms and levels of political participation of students that. was conducted by the author, a few predictors of political participation identified by the resources theory of political participation are examined. The findings of the study, in so far as the population of the study is concerned, indicate that there are no meaningful correlation between socioeconomic resources of students and two separate measures of political participation (one, a general measure encompassing various components of political participation, and, second, a specific measure of voting participation). The study, however, confirms the impact of some motivational or psychological resources identified by the resources theory, such as internal and external political efficacy.

The main aim of this article is to compare Iran's nuclear diplomacy during former President Khatami with that of current President Ahmadinejad. While assuming that there has been a radical rupture in Iran's nuclear diplomacy since President Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005, the article seeks to answer what are the main factors which shape Iran's nuclear diplomacy right now. To answer this question, the article argues that President Ahmadinejad's administration has adopted a strategy of "offensive accommodation". According to this strategy, the actor would like to change the setting in its own view. The article argues that this strategy is influenced by President's personal psychological characteristics than Iran's capabilities and international standings.

This paper seeks to address the following question: how much important are the internal and external factors in the process of democratization in developing countries. The paper's main thesis is that the destiny of imposed democracies is more dependent on internal than external situation. Democracies can be stabilized when and only when the power sources (economical, political, and intellectual) in a country are distributed evenly, so no group can oppress its rival or perpetuate its dominance over them.

Generally, political culture refers to any subjective and inter-subjective aspects of a meaning system that relates to politics.This system includes a cognitive and a normative aspect that\ determines our perception and evaluation of political environment. So, political culture is socially constructed meanings that, defining the political, (il) legitimate some political institutions, offices and interactions. By this, political culture effects political action possibilities and hence power relations. The aim of this article is to identify important ways that political culture effects political life.