The State and Revolution in Iran
Hossein Bashiriyeh
Croom Helm
The 1978 Islamic revolution in Iran has had wide-ranging consequences. This book analyses the distant and proximate causes of this revolution as well as the dynamics of power which it has set in motion since its victory. Using concepts and theories derived from contemporary political sociology the study seeks to explain the complex and far-reaching processes which produced the revolution, beginning in the late nineteenth century.
In explaining the more proximate causes of the revolution, the book analyses the nature of the old regime and its internal contradictions; the emergence of some fundamental conflicts of interest between the state and the upper class; the economic crisis of 1975-1978 which made possible a revolutionary mass immobilization; and the emergence of a new religious interpretation of political authority and the unusual spread of the ideology of political Islam among a segment of the modern intelligentsia.
The period following the fall of the monarchy has been studied in terms of the classical model of revolution, derived from the case of the French Revolution. In general, revolutions tend to divide and polarize society. Following the victory of the Islamic revolution, numerous divisions and conflicts arose — from urban and rural class conflicts to tribal and communal conflicts. These are studied in detail. This book is a political sociology of the dynamics of power in a changing society. It has a theoretical concern in that by analyzing the case under study it illuminates the principles underlying all revolutions. It makes an attempt to relate the diverse aspects of class, ideology and economic structure in order to provide an understanding of the political processes. | 
