RESEARCH LETTER OF POLITICAL SCIENSE
Year:2009 | Volume:4 | Issue:4 (16)|Papers Count:7

Political mobilization is the most important aspect of revolutions. Based on this statement, the main question of this article is: what are the dimensions and characteristics of the political mobilization in the Iranian and Nicaraguan Revolutions? Our hypothesis is that with reference to the significance of ideology, leadership, organization and mass participation in the Islamic Revolution of Iran, political mobilization in the Islamic Revolution of Iran was stronger than political mobilization in the Nicaraguan Revolution. Despite the differences between the two countries in terms of ideology (Islamic vs. Marxist), geographical size (big vs. small), main exports (oil-exporting vs. soil-exporting), both revolutions have some similarities such as their urban nature, despotic nature of the pre-revolutionary regimes, and the greatness of political mobilization. These similarities are the central justifications for this comparative study.

Both the elections of the Assembly for approving the Iranian Constitution and the Assembly of Experts were held provincially. This article argues that holding the parliamentary elections in Iran provincially would result on the one hand in several advantages including, improvement of the role of Local Councils, expansion of party culture, decrease of ethnic and tribal conflicts, and better implementation of tasks of the members of the Parliament. On the other, it would have some shortcomings and deficiencies such as decrease of people's participation, increase of socialtensions and gaps, increase of electoral expenses and ignoring people's demands. In order to have these advantages and reduce the shortcomings, this article proposes a two-round, mixed electoral system. According to this proposed system, elections are based on selecting of individual candidates for each electoral district and choosing of electoral lists. This article also proposes a majoritarian system for each electoral district and a proportional system for each provincial level to distribute different seats among various party lists.

In order to justify and naturalize domination and exploitation of ‘others,’ some ideologies which are less humane have been invented and employed throughout history. Among these ideologies is the ‘West-and- Islam’ dualism, which has been comprehensively and critically studied by Edward Said in Orientalism. Since Orientalism was published in 1978, however, the world seems to have become much more interdependent and political interrelations between the West and Islam have changed dramatically. Consequently this dualism, though more or less in place, has been influenced by escalating waves of globalization and redistributed and reshaped in a different form. Some promising changes in neo-Orientalism as well as some additional dualistic tendencies that can define neo-Orientalism are found in this new era. To portray a better future for our interdependent world, some new approaches to identity, global ethics and global civil society are suggested. Eradicating the roots of Orientalism and Occidentalism alike and accepting, protecting and even promoting diversity are first steps towards thwarting devastating threats that endanger humankind as a whole. 

Voting is one of the most important modes of citizen participation in politics. The study of voting behavior including motivations of people to participate in elections, constitute an essential field of inquiry in political sociology. This article is based on a survey of people residing in Tehran and is designed to measure the impact of a number of "social resources" and "motivations" deemed important in encouraging people to vote in elections. The motivations which are strongly correlated with regular participation at the polls include "strengthening national solidarity", "following the supreme leader," supporting the Islamic Republic," and "religious duty." In other words, those respondents who indicated a strong propensity to participate in all kinds of elections rated these items higher in their list of issues that motivate them to participate in elections. In line with patterns observed in other countries, "religiosity", "political trust", "political efficacy", and "interest in politics" are significantly correlated with voting participation. Income and education are social resources that, in contrast to most other countries, did not show any significant relationship with voting participation in Iran.

This article seeks to examine the causes of alienophobia and antialienism in the contemporary Iran’s political culture with emphasis on subjective and cultural ones. The author’s approach is cultural and tries to reexamine this subject in the context of Iran’s political culture which has roots in her historical experiences. The article argues that the origins of Iranian historical alienophobia and antialienism may be found in 1) “the subjective construct”, 2) the “type of belief” and 3) the “attitude of Iranians” towards the world in which they live. Further, the author believes that the bitter experiences of the Iranian history particularly the foreign interventions in the country, have deepened this kind of attitude towards the aliens.

Nowadays, social movements are very significant in the socio-political structure of many societies. Hence it is very important to study them. The student movements are one social movement which are very important to be studied. This article, in addition to a theoretical study of new social movements espe ially the student movements, seeks to survey the intellectual foundations of the Iranian student movement called Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat from its inception in 1979 to coming to power of the reformist government in Iran at 1997. Islamic student associations, especially Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat, have been the most important student associations in Iran since the Islamic Revolution and have had great socio-political impacts on the country such as the occupation of the American embassy in Tehran (the espionage den), the cultural revolution and support for Khatami in the presidential elections of 1997. This article seeks to survey the changing trend of Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat in this period.

Political order i.e. coordination of all components of a given political system is one of the main goals in any ideal society. This goal may be achieved if people in any political system perform their duties. This article seeks to survey the relationship between political awareness on the one hand and political legitimacy in the Iranian political system on the other. Our main finding is that though there is a strong correlation between these two factors in Iran, the charismatic and rational types of legitimacy in Iran have been reinforced despite the modernization of the Iranian society. In other words, while Weber predicts the decline of charismatic legitimacy in the process of modernization, this has not happened in Iran. Of course, the strengthening of the rational type of legitimacy has resulted in the decline of the traditional type of legitimacy.