Political Quarterly
Year:2021 | Volume:51 | Issue:1|Papers Count:14

Imam Khomeini emphasized the role and the position of the people in the Islamic state in the historical stages before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. However, he did not systematically explain his philosophy of republic based on his religious thinking, and subsequently different people with different theoretical approaches have presented different interpretations of republicanism and its theoretical foundations in his political thought. The main research question here is, what is the basis of Imam Khomeini's thinking about republicanism based on its epistemic foundations? The tentative answer is that republicanism in the political thought of Imam Khomeini stems from the anthropological and ontological point of view in his epistemic system based on mysticism. The present paper uses an analytical and interpretive approach to explain the principles of republicanism in the political thought of Imam Khomeini. Notably, republicanism in the thought of the Imam is based on the principles such as human freedom and serving the people in the mystical thought of the Imam. In the mystical thought of Imam, the establishment of the government is aimed at serving the people. Obviously, serving the people will include satisfaction and popular will. Furthermore, in the epistemic system of Imam Khomeini, human rights and religious rights are not considered to be separate. Therefore, it is concluded that republicanism in political thought of the Imam is considered to be both part of human rights as well as Islamic and religious law.

Good or benefit is one the most important concepts whose continuation and expansion destroys the principle of fairness and entitlement in society. The concept of right is being addressed today in a variety of areas, including the relation of man to himself, God, nature and material, and relations to other human beings, comprising the relationships of individuals, individuals with governments, and governments with governments. The authors have attempted to compare and analyze the main pillars of political philosophy of Rawls and Farabi, and ultimately evaluate their different views on good and right. In Farabi's philosophy, virtue and happiness are two fundamental goals, and therefore being is the essence of the world as well as a kind of the root and source of good. Farabi believes that the provision of superiority and perfection depends on Medina. The opposite of Farabi is Rawls, who has substituted righteousness to avoid undermining fairness. According to Rawls, right is a concept that has the capacity to organize the society reasonably and equitably. His criterion in this process is the preference of right over good. In short, those cases and quantities of the citizens’ expectations are selected that conform to the standards of the concept of right.

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the strategic status of the Islamic revolution and to determine the actual and optimal status in various economic, political and military areas. The author studies the Islamic Republic of Iran’ s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in each of these areas, and describes the nature of strategic status including offensive, defensive, competitive, and cautious. Based on Iran's 1404 Vision Plan, he explores the ways in which the IRI can move from the present strategic situation to a desired status by confronting the security challenges and overcoming the weaknesses.

Social learning theory is one of the theories used to analyze situation-disposition roots of violence. Using social learning theory, the authors analyze the ISIS (or Daesh) actions in Iraq and Syria. To study the extremist groups such as ISIS, they attempt to find answers to the following research questions: How has the ISIS recruited from various countries? What factors have led to the violent actions of this group from the standpoint of social cognitive learning? What factors have influenced the nature and extent of ISIS violence? The research hypothesis is that the emergence of Islamic extremist idea as a historical imperative is rooted in social learning processes. The group has used a variety of ways, including personal interaction, activities in mosques, seminars and lectures to spread the Salafi beliefs. The emergence of the radical Muslim youth has begun decades ago, and the consequence has been mounting violent actions in Iraq and Syria. Using the descriptive-analytical method, and an extensive literature review to find the written materials on the historical events and actions committed by the ISIS, the hypothesis is tested. The authors present their analysis of the underlying factors influencing the violent actions committed by ISIS in the Middle East.

The ever-increasing trend of communication and movement of information by various media in the era of globalization has caused the actors of national and official media to compete with other media actors. The policymaking in general and the media policymaking processes in particular need to take an effective stance in the face of this new situation. The main research question is: Given the presence of multiple media actors, what changes do media policymaking require? The authors try to test the following hypothesis: The increasing trend of media globalization, and the emergence of multiple media actors have necessitated media policy-making’ s simultaneous attention to governmental (formal) and non-governmental (informal) media at all stages of policy-making. The descriptive-analytical method is used to examine the available documents in order to test this hypothesis within the framework of new institutionalist approach. The findings indicate that due to the increasing presence of media actors, the expansion of informal-governmental media and the expansion of interoperable communication networks for an effective media policy require the presence of informal actors alongside formal actors. The policymakers must pay attention to the audience within the community instead of simply consolidating the official media. It is recommended that privatization and deregulation of the media ought to be considered in order to achieve a desired outcome.

In Western political philosophy, the concept of judgment is considered as a right, which is related to civil status. In Kant's view, civil status basically means argument and competition between "people’ s judgement" and "rulers" with each other. Citizens apply some kind of desirable judgment in civil life by using this right and autonomously. At the same time, the concept of judgment had another fate: it sought to find an answer to the question of whether "our perceptions of things" should be subject to fixed patterns and pre-established standards, or should each citizen make his or her own judgment? Hannah Arendt and Martha Nussbaum are among the philosophers who have begun a philosophical and political confrontation with the concept of judgment. Influenced by the Aristotelian concept of phronesis and its function in specific and changing circumstances, these two thinkers try to offer a pluralistic conception of political judgment, which seeks to establish a good and Eudaemonist life based on a political-normative reading. Using a comparative method, the authors have tried to evaluate the relationship between judgment and pluralism in the thought of these two philosophers. In addition, they express the commonalities and differences between these two philosophers in the field of political judgment.

Modernity theories occupy a vast scope in the literature, representing philosophical, historical-civil, sociological-historical approaches, and sociology of religion. Various analytical methods and theories with specific titles and characteristics have been developed within any of these approaches. The present research started with the assumption that all these approaches in this wide-ranging spectrum revolve around action and reaction concepts on one hand, and self-founded and communicative reason on the other. By using this framework, the above-mentioned notions can be conceptualized and differentiated as the main focus of this study. Our research hypothesis states that modernity theories began with the self-founded and autonomic action and then were extended to communicative reason and interaction. It follows that, the theorists’ who attempted to explain the essence of modernity moved from philosophy to sociology in form of a process by which the society was rationalized while conceptualizing reason made a passage through transcendental to instrumental and then to communicative reason. The focus of this research is on the exploration of this path by the use of a historical-hermeneutical approach.

Public good as one of the basic concepts in political thought has not been distinctly explored. Similar to key concepts such as public interest, public policy, public goods, shared interests and common good, this concept has been the basis of most of the debates of various schools of thought. In the popular discourse of political science, public good refers to those material, cultural, or institutional possibilities in which members of a community share interests. Public good is an important concept in political philosophy and political thought, because it plays an important role in philosophical thinking about the public and private dimensions of social life. While recognizing and analyzing the concept of public good and related concepts, the authors examine Jü rgen Habermas's views on the public good. Habermas considers the starting point of the concept of public good in the formation of communicative action in such a way that this action should be based on the mechanism of dialogue ethics and the principle of understanding and communication as its main form. Hence, in an ecosystem and communication system, one can expect the development of citizens’ benevolent and charitable actions, which lead to public good in an ideal society.

Japan, as the most influential country in East Asia, has played an active role in shaping the region's structure over the past three decades. In pursuit of its goals and safeguarding its interests, Japan has encountered a number of obstacles such as the rise of China. Because of its strategic significance and economic weight, it has consistently been striving to consolidate its role as a regional leader. Since the establishment of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1966, Japan has tried to play a leading role in the Asian region within the framework of the Bank. In the late 1990s, and particularly in the aftermath of the 1997 financial crisis in East Asia, regime-building in this region intensified. The authors’ main question is: Why has Japan created or supported regimes in the East Asian region and beyond? In the research hypothesis, regime-building is the independent variable, the consolidation of regional economic status is dependent variable and balancing is the control variable. It is argued that since the 1997 crisis, Japan has pursued the goal of promoting its economic status and controlling the growing power of China. As a result, it has initiated or supported the proposals to establish an Asian Monetary Fund, to form ASEAN+6 or the East Asia Summit, the Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia, Trans-Pacific Partnership, and has indicated its commitment to provide $110 billion in 2015 and to increase it to $200 billion in 2017.

In the international area, one of the most important problem is forced migration, particularly for women. Therefore, it is essential to examine the causes and consequences of forced migration for women. The main objective of this study is to investigate the attitude of Afghan women toward non-voluntary migration. For the purpose of data collection, qualitative research method and in-depth interview technique were used. Using the snowball method, a sample of thirty Afghan women living in Tehran were selected for interview. The Afghan women who were included in this study mentioned insecurity, Taliban repression, ethnic strife, inadequacy of health and educational facilities, poverty and unemployment as the reasons for their migration to Iran. These causes of migrations could be divided into three general categories: 1-war with a foreign enemy and internal conflict, 2-the collapse of the country's economic infrastructure, and 3-family reasons. It was clear that these women who were largely subordinated to their husbands, fathers, or other male family members, had nonetheless played a significant role in the migration process directly or indirectly.

The focus of this article is on the relationship between pandemics and politics, with an emphasis on the COVID-19 pandemic which has transformed into a crisis with political and security consequences. The research hypothesis is that some epidemics in Iran’ s history have caused political crises, and by creating environmental entropy have led to changes in the country. The Covid-19 pandemic provides an opportunity for institutional reform, national solidarity, acceptance of public participation and jurisprudential improvements, but it could also generate serious threats for the country. Because of Iran’ s current state of affairs caused by the global pressures, and domestic challenges of inefficiency, identity challenges and power transition, if the importance of the issue is not realized, an abysmal situation awaits Iran.

Although the roots of modern racism date back to the nineteenth century to the theory of Joseph Arthur de Gobineau, in many advanced industrial societies today the concept does not constitute the superiority of one ethnic group over another, but evokes the concept of control. In other words, the main reason for the racist actions of the majority is the fear of the minority gaining power. Meanwhile, the United States has a long history of racism. The main racist structures in the United States include slavery, racial segregation, separate schools for Indians, and large camps for the detention of foreign asylum seekers. This article seeks to answer the following questions: What has been the most important challenges for blacks in the United States, especially since Donald Trump's presidency? And what have been the main consequences of racism? By using Gurr's theory of relative deprivation and method of historical sociology, the authors show evidences of political, economic, civil, and security deprivations of blacks in the United States. The consequences of this issue include deepening the national divide, changes in the power distribution, deep divisions among the Republicans, the growth of radical black movements, the increasing independence of some states, and intensification of insecurity.

Moldova is the eastern border between the European Union and the outside world, and this has increased the country's geopolitical importance. Cooperation between the European Union and Moldova began after the country's independence. Since 2009, Moldova has committed itself to complying with EU standards. This compliance was shown in the context of Europe's Neighborhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership. The bond between the two actors culminated in the conclusion of a cooperation agreement. Under these policies, Moldova undertook fundamental reforms in the structure of its institutions in order to reach the level of European standards. In fact, ENP seeks to stimulate members’ motivation to converge with Europe. The present study seeks to answer the question of what effect will the implementation of ENP and especially EaP have on the political development of this country. The author’ s research hypothesis is that ENP, in the form of the principle of conditionality and the principle of socialization, has put pressure on the implementation of political reforms in Moldova, but the developmental impact of these policies has been superficial and unpredictable. To test this hypothesis, the theory of Europeanization of Frank Schimmelfenning has been used. This theory is a tool for understanding the internal changes of Moldavia and the process of its development.

Among the main topics in political geography, one can see the discussion of formation and accumulation of ethnic groups in geographical areas, and the method of ethnic and racial groups’ interactions. The authors seek to analyze the role of ethnic groups in the formation of the political structure and governance of Afghanistan since 2001 by using a descriptive-analytical approach. They study the political and administrative structure of the post-Taliban government. The findings show that the ethnocentric structure of power in the past, backed by the ideology of ethnic nationalism, fostered tribalism among the non-ruling ethnic groups. This in turn has made ethnicism a natural and widespread phenomenon in all walks of life and has caused a crisis of national identity in Afghanistan. Long-term ethnic domination has led to a society in which ethnic norms and interests determine the political behaviors of individuals and socio-political groups. In this situation, the basic goal of behaviors and actions is ethnicity and the provision of ethnic interests, and political ideologies are accepted and supported to the extent that they serve this purpose. Consequently, today the rise of ethnicism is at a high level in the country.