ISLAMIC REVOLUTION STUDIES
Year:2009 | Volume:5 | Issue:17|Papers Count:8

The present article classifies the Iranian middle class into traditional middle class and the modern one, and the latter into religious and liberal; it then studies the situation of the new middle class in the years after the Islamic Revolution by using some parameters such as level of education, the amount of urban population, the lifestyle and model of consumerism. Finally, an outlook of the influence of this social class in political evolutions of Islamic Republic of Iran in areas such as political power, political groups and parties, and political culture has been presented here.

The present article aims at applying the model of structural functionalism in crises due to disorders in functions of Islamic Republic of Iran under Mir Hussein Musawi's government. In that period, the State's macro policy was based on distributive justice and political-economic centralization. Based on the functionalist model, crisis and disorder are mainly explainable by malfunction of political system. On the one hand, according to Islamic revolution's causes and ideals, as well as the constitutional law, the fundamental goals of Islamic Republic of Iran fall into three major categories of freedom, justice and independence, to which the crisis and instability are directly related. On the other hand, according to structural functionalism, the main functions and tasks of the regime are served along with pursuing those goals which contribute to crisis and instability.

Islamic revolution of Iran caused great evolutions in global and social structures, values and arrangements. Some of the factors leading to revolution were concrete social factors, and mental and intellectual factors had also great roles in creating discontent due to neglecting people's religious values as well as in formation of revolution due to revolutionary doctrines.Contrary to the belief that Iranians' political culture prepared no ground for revolutionary change prior to revolution, the question is how new elements emerged in parameters of Iranians' political culture, preparing the ground for revolutionary change. The present study is seeking to answer this question by stating the productivity of religious aspects of Iranians' political culture and new interpretations of religious doctrines as well as the religious leaders' proper usage of these doctrines.

Studying the foundations of security and methods of providing it in societies shows that-contrary to the claims of many States-foundations, principles, and the tools of creating, reservation, and developing public security in political systems are not the same; rather, the source, the goals and the methods of achieving a secure society are different in various political systems. The present article deals with re-identification of the foundations and approaches of public security in Islamic Republic of Iran with a glimpse at Pahlavi regime whose approach to public security may be called a "threat-centered" approach.However, Islamic Republic of Iran rejects this approach based on the spirit of Islamic Law and its own religious foundations. It has based its security approach on people; this approach may be called a "society-centered" approach.

The present paper investigates the reaction of Iranian intelligentsia to liberal thought from 1340s up to Islamic revolution. The liberal thought entered Iran as a modern way of thinking, affecting intelligentsia in two aspects. On the one hand, some of the Iranian intelligentsia yielded to liberal thought and imitated it; they are called westerners. On the other hand, some of the intelligentsia, in their defense of Iranian religious and national identity, embarked on renewing religious thought and prevented undermining identity and intellectual beliefs of the society. Here, the reaction of intelligentsia to liberalism has been studied with an emphasis on thoughts and views of three influential Iranian personalities, i.e. Jalal Al-e Ahmad as a criticizer intellectual as well as Bazargan and Shari'ati as two religious intellectuals.

Under Reza Khan, a period of almost twenty years, a culture of consumerism was founded, the effects of which are felt even now, years after the victory of Islamic Revolution. Some measure were taken such as changing the Iranians' genuine Islamic culture and driving the cultural atmosphere of the society towards pedestrian culture of the West, centralization of power in the hands of a puppet government and the State's all-out interference in all sections of society-which led to the waste and pillage of resources and no optimal usage of them-all had unwelcome effects, some of which are as follows: anomalous import of western products, severe inequality in payment balance, lopsided growth of cities, and destruction of rural areas.

The present study identifies the formation of parties as the result of the political renewal of Islamic Republic of Iran, and investigates the process of evolution of parties in Iran according to Huntington's model of societies under renewal. The phenomenon of political renewal and formation of parties in Iran can be investigated from two aspects: (1) Islamic revolution was a demotic revolution in which almost all social classes participated; (2) with the victory of Islamic revolution, a constitutional law was formulated based on two pillars of Islamism and republicanism. This provided the necessary basis for formation of parties. Besides, the economic renewal of the country in the period of reconstruction brought about a middle class contributing to formation of parties in the years to come; however, this process also posed challenges for Islamic regime due to concerns for preservation of Islamic laws on the one hand, and people's participation on the other. These concerns were one of the factors hindering the development of parties and their being institutionalized.