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PREFACE
The present book is in the main an outgrowth of research originally carried out for my doctoral thesis in Iran in 1980. Apart from personal observations, contacts and travels, especially in the western provinces in connection with the question of the minorities, I conducted interviews with the Plan Organization and the Ministries of Commerce and Economy on government-business relations. The Statistical Centre and the Central Bank were helpful in providing government data and information and the Ministry of National Guidance allowed me to use its archives. For the newspapers and sources prior to the revolution, I used the Library of the Majles and the Central Library of Tehran University, as well as the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
I would like to express my thanks to Dr Barry Munslow of the University of Liverpool, Dr. David Pool of the University of Manchester, Mr. Hans Schadee, and Professor Nikki Keddie of the University of California for their intellectual support and incisive comments. Professor Keddie read the manuscript for the publishers and made helpful comments on the structure of the study, which were gratefully taken into consideration in the rewrite.
Finally, I owe a special debt to my sister, Moulood, for her assistance with the laborious job of going through piles of numerous newspapers published after the revolution.
Currency and Calendar
One pound sterling = 140 rials, approximately.
The Iranian year starts on 21 March (1 Farvardin) and ends on 20 March (30 Esfand).
To find the equivalent year on the Christian calendar, add 621 years to the Persian calendar.
Introduction: Analytical Framework
The revolution which broke out in Iran in 1978 and led to the fall of the monarchy and the establishment of an Islamic republic forms one of the major episodes of conflict in the political history of twentieth-century Iran. The focus of the present study is to explain the causes of that revolution and the phases which it has gone through, by putting emphasis on the social aspects of the conflict. In this endeavor the introductory Chapter 1 analyses the evolution of the state structure in Iran from the beginning of this century to the consolidation of the Shah’s regime in 1963. It thus puts the Islamic Revolution of 1978-9, in a longer historical context of political conflict arising from the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-11. In Chapter 2 the nature of the royal regime obtaining before the revolution will be studied in terms of its foundations of power and stability in the 1963-78 period. Oil wealth, economic stabilization, cooperation between the state and the upper class, repression and US political support formed the bases of the Shah’s power. In turn, the crumbling of these foundations of power eventually led to the disintegration of his regime. In Chapters 3, 4 and 5 we will seek to explain the major causes of the revolution. To do this, we will use a concept that will bring together several factors which by themselves are insufficient to explain the revolution. They include the development of a revolutionary ideology portraying a better possible society in a decade or so before the revolution; the economic crisis of 1973-8 leading to the generation of economic discontent and grievances on a mass scale; the emergence of some fundamental conflicts of interest between the state and the upper bourgeoisie; the disintegration of the regime’s foreign support; the revolutionary mobilization of the masses by a network of mobilizing organizations; and the occurrence of a political alliance between diverse forces of opposition to the monarchy. Thus we will treat the revolution as a conjuncture taking into account the internal contradictions of the state such as its conflict with the upper class and the disintegration of the army, and the external revolutionary pressures brought to bear on the regime such as political mobilization and political alliances.
The significance of this concept of revolution as a primarily political event becomes evident when it is contrasted with modern anti-political theories of revolution which divert attention from the political …
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