JOURNAL OF POLITICAL STUDIES
Year:2011 | Volume:3 | Issue:11|Papers Count:8

Schools play strong role in the process of political sociology and the transition of cultural values to the next generations. This function of school could lead to the reproduction of existing political system and internalization of nation’s values, principles and goals. Schools also play significant role in the public participation, higher legitimacy of political system, the preservation of public and individual identity and the social capital for the support of political system. Hence, it is tried in this article to study the role of school in the reproduction of existing political system.

This article aims to find out the roots of Islamic radicalism. With this aim in mind, the proposed hypothesis is that the Islamic fundamentalism and its extremist faction conventionally called “Islamic Radicalism” are revolt against existing situation. Multidimensional crisis in Islamic nations in general and Egypt in particular is the consequence of introduced modernism in these countries. In fact, Islamic fundamentalism has set itself to challenge the west and react strongly against the social crisis produced by modernism. Proponents of Islamic fundamentalism argue that this movement is a new identity for Moslems and a solution in preventing the social deviation and decay in Islamic world. In other words, west and modernism is perceived by Moslem fundamentalists to be the cause of all problems in the world. Proposed alternative by the proponents of Islamic fundamentalism is to return to the real Islam and animosity against western nations and their values.

It is aimed in this article to answer this question as to why the relation between Iran and Turkey has been both conflictual and cooperative and this relation has never been very friendly and evolutionary. Findings in this research show that the Iran-Turkey relations within the years of 1989-2008 has been strongly influenced by three factors of ideology, Iran-Iraq war, the regional and international geopolitical changes. The impact of these factors on the Iran-turkey relationship is what to be considered in this article.

Implementation of foreign policy in our contemporary world is more and more based on imagination and speculation of decision makers. Achievements in Foreign policy and the attainment of national goals and national interests are depended mainly on the availability of resources and, now a day, on software power of nation. General diplomacy as one of the sources of software power and a tool of foreign policy due to the changes in world power structure and displacement of hardware power by soft one and also increasing influence of public opinion in international relation all of which has now led to the stronger public and cultural role in the formation of foreign policy. In this article, it is tried to have a look at the principles of general diplomacy, the capacity and the role of culture as influential factors on the Iranian foreign policy.

The main objective in this paper is to survey the level of political anomie among Iranian students using some theoretical Concepts such as: feeling of effectiveness on sociopolitical issues; sociopolitical trusts; and the feeling toward the rules and regulations. Theoretical arguments, including Durkheim’s theoretical reflections on political anomie, are presented. Field survey is the applied method of collecting data through a researcher made questionnaire.Students of Islamic Azad University constituted the statistical population of this research. A sample of 350 respondents completed the questionnaire. Cluster sampling applied to the selection of students. Findings show that respondents suffer from political anomie at the rate of higher than average on a five points scale. Respondents also express low effectiveness on sociopolitical issues; their feeling of sociopolitical trust and civic obligations are average on this scale.

Along the line of changes in the internal order and the globalized environment, the need for conceptual framework for understanding pluralistic identity of Iranian society is felt. In spite of this civic need, neither the past order due to the ethnic integration could have preserved the Iranian identity prior to the modernity nor is the attempt for replacing the national identity with other identity could be internalized. In this article, the capability of the model “identity discourse” in materialization of ideals in constitutions and the realization of the rights of citizens is examined. So, the hypothesis presented is that with the model of “identity discourse” the harmony of Iranian national identity in a changing environment of the new order could be preserved. Social harmony is obtained on the base of the role played by the institutions of nation-state. However, in spite of modernity outlook, the identity of other layers of society is not going to be seriously threatened or ruined.

A review of the history of Islamic revolution shows that the decisions and policies of Pahlavi’s government were; to a great extend, under the influence of western bloc including U.S. leaders. It is aimed in this paper to find out the impact of Carter’s paradoxical decisions on the occurrence of Islamic revolution in Iran. With this in mind as main objective, the principles of “decision making model” in foreign policy are applied to the making of decisions during Pahlavi’s regime and Islamic revolution. Then, this paper addresses the impact of Carter’s paradoxical decisions on both Pahlavi’s regime and the process of Islamic Revolution. It is also tried to examine the capability of decision making theory in the explanation of Islamic revolution.

The history of western thought could be categorized generally into three paradigms of pre-modern, modern and post-modern. It is tried in this article to explore comparatively the worldviews of modernity and post-modernity based on three concepts of epistemology, ontology and anthropology. In other words, the main objective of the argument is to make an in-depth enquiry into the roots and fundamental ingredients of modernity. The question raised is what were the criticisms and weaknesses of modernity which led to the emergence of the school of thought called post-modernism? Hence, three concepts of epistemology, ontology and anthropology are applied as ingredients of comparison between the two paradigms of modernity and post-modernity.