JOURNAL OF POLITICAL STUDIES
Year:2015 | Volume:7 | Issue:28 |Papers Count:10

Attempts to make a modern discourse among Iranian people an order of the day dated back to the constitutional era. The nature of the discourse among Iranian political elite was of authoritarian nature which eventually led to an oligarchic and dictatorial regime headed by a military officer named Reza Shah. Consequently, legality desired by Iranian society which was the focal point of constitutional discourse was faded away. This research focuses on the way constitutional discourse was formed and investigates its effects. Here, we show that pre-structured ideas of affective authorities lead to strange identities and new identity boundaries emerge out of constitutional movement. Focus of the mentioned movement departures from legislator government to modernization and security. It is shown that authoritarianism in the heart of social powers leads to regression of political development and the recession of political culture. The method of this research is based on Laclau and Mouffe discourse.

Culture, as the most important element of identity in a society, guarantees sustenance of nation's independence and its very existence. Obviously, in today's world policy – making, programming and adaptation, culturally appropriate approach for growth and upgrading cultural human societies, becomes an imperative and vital. Hence the main objective of this article is to find out how tolerant the Islamic culture is in the face of cultural globalization. Could it maintain its basic principles in the ever changing cultural bonds due mainly to the fast changing technology and in particular the explosion of technology and mass communication? It appears that Islamic culture is so rich and elastic that could contribute to the globalization of culture in the direction of human brotherhood, peace and prosperity. Therefore cultural globalization is not only of no threat to Islamic culture but could borrow and implement Islamic principles in the process.

There is no concept more disputable than the concept of "Freedom" among Islamic Researchers. The Muslim thinkers have tried to define their interpretation of Freedom by referring to Tradition and Quran and in this way they claim that their interpretations is the most correct one. In this context, the main issue of this study is that Misbah Yazdi and Mojtahed Shabistary, as two political thinkers, each of whom respectively representing the Islamic jurisprudents and religious intellectuals reach different definition on freddom? The main hypothesis in this research is based on Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, who believes that any understanding and knowledge simply comes from the specific landscape and its changes can make different understanding. Also the Research hypothesis disputes about mental and rational defaults of two thinkers on Human or in other words their Anthropology of them and its role in shaping the interpretation of the concept of freedom within Qur'an. We used Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics as a Method and our findings confirm research hypothesis.

Mosque has been the religious center for the gathering of Muslims and the propagation of Islamic Ideology from the beginning of Islam. Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, the first thing he did after his arrival at Medineh was to build the Mosque for the gathering of Muslims and carry on their prayer collectively. Iran's Islamic Revolution also used mosque for the propagation of Islamic movement against monarchy, as such it played a robust role in inspiring and mobilizing the masses against despotic monarch. The author in the article is trying to answer this question: What is the role of the mosque in the Islamic Revolution and its continuation? And how the value system of society adopts its self to the Islamic principles? What is the role of Mosque in the continuation and the transfer of Islamic values to the new generations and how they accomplish their role in this direction?

The present paper analyzes the relationship between tradition and modernity in Imam Khomeini’ s thought and action, and by using the theoretical framework of Thomas Spragens’ Crisis Theory it tries to answer the research question of how Imam Khomeini saw and analyzed the confrontation of tradition and modernity and what solution he proposed to deal with it. By reviewing the historical background of (advent of) modernity in Iran, this paper will also discuss and investigate dimensions, trend, consequences, crises and irregularities that resulted from it especially in the era of Pahlavi dynasty. Finally, it will review the positions taken against and responses given to modernity by Iranians throughout the history in the form of three different movements, one of which includes Imam Khomeini. Based on Crisis Theory, the questions of ‘ what crisis results from the confrontation of tradition and modernity from Imam Khomeini’ s viewpoint, ’ ‘ what problem he thought of as the main problem of the Iranian society, ’ ‘ what he thought as the causes of this imbalance and crisis, ’ ‘ what the ideal society was for him’ and ‘ what solution he proposed as a way out for problems’ will be the most significant questions of this paper. To deal with the above issues with an emphasis on the preservation and dissemination of pure Islamic and national traditions, Imam Khomeini tried to have tradition and modernity interact through reviving and reinterpreting tradition and accepting practical requirements as well as exigencies of place and time.

The impact of intellectuals on the realization political development is undeniable. David Easton and Seymour Martin Lipset's research has found significant relation between the presence of intellectuals and political development. Therefore, a significant relationship was assumed for the owners of ideas and the opportunity for them. In this regard, the native intellectuals have the obligation to fulfill its duties toward the economic and political development of this country. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of the nativist intellectuals in political development. Hence, in this paper it is argued how the intellectuals are hampered in their role to have an impact or direct the public opinion toward the political development. Findings of this research indicate that the current set of indigenous oriented intellectuals is not given the opportunity to have an impact on the path to development.

In the developing countries, maintaining popular support for the ruling elite requires the mobilization of masses and stirring the public sentiments against the rationality of politically developed societies. Political participation is the hallmark of rationality in the democratic societies which has become institutionalized. This paper attempts to investigate the situation of Iranian political culture and its role in the dominant discourse of populist justice that should be subordinated to the political culture. The ninth and tenth government during Ahmadinejad presidency gave direct response to the demand of masses without paying attention to the intellectuals' opinion which is not reflecting the essence of rationality prevalent in civil society.

The university and students’ movement has been one of crucial elements of the sociopolitical developments in iran history; they are also the most significant to identify active sociopolitical conflicts, gaps and controversies in Iran at present. Within the framework of a sociological approach and emphasizing on a ''structuralist'' perspective theorizing the social movements, the author intends to reveal the gap between government and university in the country during 1979-2006 that led to a developed students’ movement. The author’ principal aim is to specify contribution, influential effects, structural role an function of the government of Islamic Republic in emergence and deepening of such gap, its formal, political structure and examining transactional process, criticism, reform, confrontation and the gap between the government and the university, and discussing the government’ s role and contribution during the 4-year cultural revolution, Iraq-Iran war, reconstruction and reforms periods. Finally, the author conclude that a ''political radicalism'' of the students’ movement, in especially during the Reforms time, has been the product of the structural-functional paradox of the traditional government and the modern academics institutions.

China’ s economic development and transition to harmonious society is mostly owed to developmental elites who are trying to move toward prosperity goals, assemblage of tradition and modernity, construction of developmental state, performance of various economic-political functions and establishment of harmonious society. According to this fact, the main question of this paper is to clarify the role of elites in the process of economic development and building up a harmonious society in China? The main hypothesis of this paper is that the pragmatic platforms of Chinese’ elites on one hand and specified decision for development, nationalism, commitment to progression and delicacy to security threats on the other hand, has led to china’ s economic advancement and structure of harmonious society.