JOURNAL OF POLITICAL STUDIES
Year:2009 | Volume:1 | Issue:3|Papers Count:10

An important change which emerged through the last century is the progressive role of the state in social life. In contrast to classic sociology, which was mainly based on society in discussion up to twentieth century and avoided the discussion of the state and its changes-with an exception of Marxist sociology-in the twentieth century, and in particular the recent years, the state not only brought great changes in social life, but also found importance in sociological theories. This makes the fundamental hypothesis in this paper.

Composition of Iranian population renders it as multi-ethnic society. Living of different ethnics such as Fars, Turk, Kurd, Lour, Balooch, Turkmen and Arab near each other and in the same political-geographical region shows the ethnic and cultural variety in Iranian society. So, we always can find the identity crises in it. This structural incongruity provides sociopolitical ground for social tensions and upheavals such as happened in Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Turkmen Sahara from time to time in the Iranian past history. Ethnic problem in Iran and the way of interaction with each other and with central government is an important fact in the present time and also in the past and will be in the future. The question posed in this paper is as follow: is the way of ethnic identity reconstruction in Iran in the line of modern identification process or is the return to the traditional concept of ethnicity? In this article we try to look on the ethnic problem in Iran and analyze the present situation and position of ethnicity in the country and also explain the ethnic identity reconstruction, especially among students. At the end, it is intended to find out the methods of increasing inter-ethnic interactions and also the relationship between various ethnics and government in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Michel Foucault rejects the mere hierarchical perception of nature and the concept of power. He believes that power is not a concept simply communicated in downstream order, but it flows into a complicated network of relations. This is what defines the structure of society and makes it legitimate. In this sense, power permeates in different layers of social and linguistic interactions. In other word, power is not simply practiced in a hierarchical manner, rather it takes place in so-called discourse setting. In Foucault’s thoughts, the power exists in different forms of interrelationships such as: linguistic interactions among individuals, social groups and classes. In other words, what reproduce the existing order is interrelated with the order producing set of concepts in consensus and making them legitimate. In theoretical point of view, Michel Foucault’s definition of the power provided great assistance for modern sociology and this is what the present paper aims to address.

Addressing the nature of perfect state in Thomas Aquinas’ political thoughts, the present study suggests monarchy as the best form of government in his thoughts, however, two different answers may be found to the question of who is to be the monarch: as a Christian, Aquinas whishes Pope to be the monarch and as an Aristotelian, he favors common kingdom. However, he ultimately accepts the condition of the time and holds on a balanced view: Pope as the spiritual leader and King as the political leader of society. However, blurred borders of the authority, raises Thomas beyond the mere approval of current states and his  mythical -dream of Pope the King leadership and leads him to description of King’s responsibilities for Pope’s independence. At the end, he suggests monarchy as a preferred form of states, since it is more natural and maps the governing power of reason over other spiritual functions. That is, King governs the state, just as reason and spirit govern other parts of body. Existence of some sort of supervision and administration over King’s performance suggests closeness of his ideas and modern time constitutional governments.

Neorealism, which still sees states as the most influential players in international relation grounds, puts forward a powerful version of realism stating as long as the international system averts power, there will exist conflict over power and security. Neorealism poses the deepest and the most précis criticism on reformist projects in international relations. It is not, then, surprising that this school of thought has been repeatedly criticized by reformists or critical-minded groups. Coming out as a result of challenges between behavioral theory and interdependence theory, this new theory, despite having been heavily criticized on different aspects, is still predominant. The present essay attempts to address the issue of emergence of neorealism, its philosophical-intellectual bases as well as its fundamental elements through various viewpoints put forward by critics of neorealism theory.

This article intends to explore some conceptual and methodological dimensions of globalization and focuses on some important consequences and results of this process, especially the question of poverty and inequality. Although the globalization has played some role in increasing social injustice and inequality among countries but the main argument of this article is that these inequalities and injustices are the result of policies applied to globalization and also the internal problems and weaknesses of third world countries.

The history of contemporary political philosophy has passed highly vicissitude historical periods. From ancient up to the present time, new fundamental evolutions in the current concepts and approaches in the study of political science have been occurred and accomplished by well-known thinkers and authorities. According to Duverger, the realistic outlook on the phenomenon and concepts of the political field is considered by the political thinkers as in the position of two faces of double-spirit genius, sometimes as opponents and sometimes in parallel or incorporating simultaneously with each other. Although the signs of realistic outlook can be sought among the ancient Greek political thinkers such as Aristotle, the place of Machiavelli in this area of philosophical reflection is unique. He invented new concepts in western political literature if we consider his surrounding historical and geographical conditions. Taking that into account, we will observe that he has played an essential role in the beginning of era of intellectuality and the period of transition from middle to modern age. His concept of realism and realistic outlook seems to be central and of significant importance among his other invented concepts that we will emphasize in the present paper.

Classic and traditional structure of security in the Middle-East has been mostly constructed on realistic view after World War II. Arab-Israel War, battles over occupied lands, Iran-Iraq War, Golf War, US conflicts with Saddam and Taliban, and other crises all have made the structure of security in the region root deep in conflict and battle. The author of present paper, however, believes that emergence of new events and variables in the Middle-East can prepare the constructivist ground for basic changes in the region’s security. On this basis, US troop’s invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and reluctance of region’s states to the idea of Great Middle East, on one hand, and new wave of fundamentalism, on the other hand, has led to more prominent role of state-nation and replacement of previous doctrines based on the balance between terror and neorealist by new security doctrines based on institutionalism, convergence, and structuralism (Kent Waltz). In other words, phenomena such as presence of coalition troops, doubts on new waves of radicalism and reluctance to and dissatisfaction with the idea of Great Middle-East, not only have built a new foundation for state-nation connection, but also promoted such states’ perception of concepts like national security and national interests. Based on such changes, with the role of nation state becoming prominent, regardless of all ideological, political, historical, and cultural gaps, a new convergence in the region is emerging based on constructivist approach.