POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE
Year:2009 | Volume:4 | Issue:2 (8)|Papers Count:7

Justice is an important subject that most of political and social philosophers have paid attention to. Because of this we have so many ideas about "What is Justice?" in Islamic discourse. Justice has a strong relation with Allah; and the term "Allah΄s- justice" (Edallate Elahi) is the main source for the explanation of Islamic Justice. In this article, three different aspects of justice in Islamic discourse have been distinguished and criticized by the author. These are:First, Islamic Jurisprudence by analysing the thought of Mirza Hosein Naeeni.Second, Islamic Philosophy by analysing the thought of Morteza Motahhari.Third, Sociological Analysis, by explaining the thought of Ali Shariati.The author did his best to show that the meaning and the way of practicing justice in these three aspects are different; of course we could find a common era because of the ideological identity of justice in Islam. The remarkable point here is an attempt to locate some issues in justice that could offer a chance to the reader for comparative analysis. To this end, the philosophical, social and sociological bases of justice have been emphasized and different manifestations of it (political, social, economic and philosophical justice) have been recognized and introduced.

This research has as its objective the study of the media effects on public opinion when representing some of the events. It centers on the effect of news media on shaping the American and Iranian public opinion about each other. By surveying a small portion of this, it is almost possible to understand the degree of impressionability of each side from the mass media. It has been attempted to conduct a qualitative case study of a certain number of Iranians and Americans, mostly the educated ones, in order to comprehend their perceptions by using the theory of the effect of representation by the mass media on shaping public opinion. By representation it means that no media could be an impartial intermediary when depicting an event, since the media depends on language and meaning which are in their turn used within a discourse subject to power. Hence the representation done by the media, disregarding its being moral or not, has an ideological inclination and tends to sustain or undermine power and its pertinent discourse. The results show that Americans are more swayed by their media which usually offers a negative picture of Iran. Hence the development of direct interactions between these two domains – in scientific, research, … fields – can exert a stronger influence on American public opinion than the Iranian one.

In social science area, some think that scientific studies require and content a hidden materialism. They believe a sort of interconnection and synchronization between materialism and scientific studies, however emerging and expansion of post-materialism school reveals that it is not right. In the article it will be endeavored that theoretical foundations of post-materialism, particularly Ronald Inglehart's finding to be explained. Furthermore, I shall try to survey the impact of this school on understanding politics as well as globalization process. The point is how the change in social atmosphere and value system of post-industrial societies have provided some causes in a change in foundation of politics, political needs, the relationship between states and citizens. In the article I will try to explain various views as well as changing theories of post-materialism and its impact on political science in theoretical realm. It is for this reason that we cannot use empirical or quantitative methods, but we shall explain the two main variables, namely emerging post- materialism and changing political knowledge. Of course, in the last part of the article I will explore some of normative inclinations as well as religious trends in Iranian society and endeavor to survey and criticize some of materialistic veins in academic political science in Iran.

Foreign policy is one of the most prominent tools for providing territorial integrity, security, international credit and progressing national plans and objectives in political, economic and cultural domains.What is needed in an efficient system of foreign policy is not a mere bundle of characteristics, but a sensitive balance between realism and scrutiny, flexibility and maintenance of eligibility and moderation and finally continuation and change that tend to a valuable objective such as retaining the security of the country.In the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution, a noticeable shift occurred in Iranian foregn policy, due to the fact that the foundation of foreign policy in Islam is based on binding principles as mentioned by fiqh. In the political fiqh of Islam there is a principle that orders the preservation of dar-al- Islam which gives meaning to other principles. It was this approach which urged the late Imam Khomeini to give more value to the issue of the propagation of the revolutionary Islam from the onset of the Islamic Republic for the sake of safeguarding dar – al – Islam, although he never denied the importance of military and disciplinary forces in sustaining the political, social and economic independence and the security of the country face to face with other countries.In Imam khomeini's opinion not only could we assume any distinction between the security of Moslems, the country and the government, but also we should link it to that of other Moslems all throughout the world. According to this view, the concept of "ummah" replaces that of "nation" and the Iranian security becomes an integral part of the world security. The conclusion is that by taking the notion of security as pivotal, in contrast with both the realistic and idealistic outlooks which are currently accepted, the preservation of dar – al – Islam underlies the national security of Iran as an inseparable part of the Islamic world's security.

Iran's foreign policy towards the United States is among important issues that require special consideration as a follow-up to the question of how should the US stand on Iran. Nevertheless, in our scientific circles only the latter has been a matter of cocern for practical purposes. To compensate for this shortcoming and in regard to the pivotal role of James Rosenau's theory in comprehending foreign policies in recent years, the present article examines Iran's policy towards the United States during 1953 to 1979 from the theoretical perspective put forth by James Rosenau. The dominant discourse in Iran's foreign policy is examined in two distinct periods of 1953-1963 and 1963- 1979 and the major elements affecting this policy are identified. The paper proposes that the person of the Monarch and the structure of the international system were the major factors that affected the country's policy towards the United States. The significance of this analysis becomes apparent when it makes us aware of the roots of the dependence of Pahlavi regime's foreign policy on external forces, a matter which has to be heeded by the actual independent foreign policy administration of Iran in order to avoid its recurrence.

Recognizing the objectives and future achievements is indispensable for the Islamic Revolution inasmuch as any kind of development and attainment of goals is affected by a more intensive awarensess of the future; a future to which we should proceed through deep studies and effective management and formulated strategy. This requires compatibility with scientific methods so that it could lead to a reassuring stance. The knowledge gained in this regard needs to be accompanied by straightforwardness, order, and scientific supervision to ensure a powerful presence of the Islamic Republic in regional and international arenas and shrewd confrontation with the oncoming political challenges. The prospective plan of the Islamic Revolution is therefore revealing a bright and active and effective presence in the Islamic world, the establishment of a religious democracy, efficient development, ethical society, intellectual and social innovativeness, and the formation of regional and Islamic unity by the end of 1404 (A.H). The existing hurdles and the undesirable climate produced by colonialists and oppressive powers in the Islamic world have been some of the challenges facing the Islamic Republic in the last three decades and have led to domestic and regional threats. Therefore, in the study of the future of the Islamic Republic, the primary step for designing a desirable outlook should be the anticipation of the Probable situations that would result in political challenges in the Islamic world and the tracing of the most prominent challenges to come. This will enable to formulate effective strategies and develop competent management to transform challenges into opportunities.

The foreign policy of each country is the outcome of the dialectical interaction between environmental and material factors on the one hand and the cultural and historical factors on the other. Among these, national culture is one of the major effective elements in the formation of national identity, elites' mental pictures, national interests and role, and foreign policy strategies and orientations. This is due to the inseparability of foreign policy from social, cultural and identity –related considerations. On this basis and in regard to the importance of recognizing identity and cultural elements for understanding the foreign policy of a country, the author has surveyed the cultural roots of the Islamic Republic of Iran's foreign policy and has evaluated the effect of major indices in each of Iranian cultural layers on foreign policy by adopting a theoretical/ operational approach. The author believes that despite the numerousness of identity discourses in Iran, it is possible to define the foreign policy or even the probable behavior of Iran by recognizing the Iranian, Islamic and modern discourse elements.