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Media type:
Book
Title:
Class, politics, and ideology in the Iranian revolution
Contains:
Introduction: Theories of Revolution Agency and Theory of Revolution -- Class, Politics, and Ideology in the Iranian Revolution -- Pt. 1. Causes of the Iranian Revolution. 1. Episode and Discourse: The Rise and Decline of Nationalist-Liberal Ideology. The National Front. Oil as the National Issue. The Coup and Its Consequences. 2. The State and the Problem of National Integration. The State Versus Civil Society. The Monarchy-Centered Nationalist Discourse. 3. The State and the Patterning of Class Conflict. Economic Development. Dependence and Vulnerability. 4. The State and the Indigenous Classes. The Petty Bourgeoisie and the Merchants. The Politics of the Bazaar. Workers and Revolution. 5. The Rise of Revolutionary Islam. State, Class, and the Problem of Ulama Unity. The Decline of Liberalism and Communism. Revolutionary Islamic Discourse. The Shi'i Discursive Field and Ideological Mobilization. 6. Contrasting Cases: Islam and Politics in Egypt and Syria. Egypt: A Divided Islam. Syria and a Sectarian Islamic Movement -- Pt. 2. The Outcomes of the Iranian Revolution. 7. Islamic Discourse and Postrevolutionary Conflicts. The Rise of a New Political Order. Revolution and Counterrevolution. What Kind of Revolution? -- Revolution as a Content -- Revolution as a Mode -- Social Structure and Ideology
Includes bibliographical references (p. [311]-329) and index
Description:
A common weakness of many current dominant theories of revolution, argues author Mansoor Moaddel, is their exclusion of the role of ideology. He examines the Iranian revolution, highlighting class politics and contention for power within the context of changing the ideological relation between the state and civil society. In Moaddel's analytical framework, class politics and the state's action play crucial roles in the genesis of the Iranian Revolution. The state-patterned class conflict defined the identity of the opposition and channeled oppositional activities through the medium of religion. The revolutionary crisis began when the social discontent was expressed in terms of Shi'i revolutionary discourse. Moaddel argues that Shi'i revolutionary ideology was produced by diverse ideologues to address the problems they faced in the post-coup (1953) period. In presenting his argument, Moaddel provides a new and useful interpretation of the revolution in Iran, characterizing the postrevolutionary political order as a Third-World variant of fascism
Thirteen years after the Shah of Iran was swept away in a tide of revolutionary fervor, the cruelty and brutality of the new regime remains shocking. In Class, Politics, and Ideology in the Iranian Revolution, Mansoor Moaddel provides the theoretical underpinnings for a richer and clearer understanding of Iran's tumultuous recent history. Analyzing the causes and processes of the revolution through the prisms of class, politics, and ideology, Moaddel argues that the currently dominant theories of revolution insufficiently address the requisite question of ideology: "Ideology is not simply another factor that adds an increment to the causes of revolution. Ideology is the constitutive feature of revolution." Moaddel explains how revolutionary conditions in Iran were created by a combination of state economic policies favoring international capital - which enraged segments of the powerful bourgeoisie - and fluctuations in the world economy that financially weakened Iran. But the central element of the revolutionary crisis of the late 1970s was the development of Shi'i revolutionary discourse as the dominant ideology. As liberalism and communism declined, the potent discourse of revolutionary Islam - with its martyrdom, its religious rituals, its symbolic structures - formed a powerful conduit for popular mobilization. Karl Marx likened the French Revolution to a gigantic broom which swept away all the "medieval rubbish." Drawing from his abundant theoretical, historical, and sociological knowledge, Moaddel illuminates the process by which the gigantic broom of the Iranian Revolution "swept all the medieval rubbish back in