Political repression, socialization, and frame of interpretation: A comparative study of the establishment of a constitutional regime (1906) and an Islamic regime (1979) in Iran

The establishment of an Islamic regime in Iran, in 1979, despite decades of secularization and the question of the Shi'a establishment, came as a surprise to many scholars. In their attempt to explain this phenomenon, scholars have examines various factors such as Shi'a ideology; the anomie created by rapid modernization; Iran's uneven structural development; the charisma and political ability of Khomeini; and the political and theoretical mistakes of the secular forces.;In general, however, scholars have overlooked that the establishment of an Islamic regime in Iran was also a reproduction of dictatorship; that the forces opposing the dictatorial regime of the Shah did not perceive democratic rights as universal nor as their priority. After the revolution, the demands for women's rights, freedom of expression, or fair trial were refuted on the grounds of being either "secondary" issues or liberal and/or western concepts.;This thesis contends that the establishment of an Islamic regime in Iran cannot be fully understood without taking into consideration the vision that opposition forces had of democracy and how a society should be ruled, as well as the political circumstances under which revolution occurred. I argue that whereas confidence in the intellectual and moral competence of ordinary people is the underlying assumption of democracy, the forces opposing the Shah perceived the populace as politically and culturally infected by a decadent bourgeois/western/imperialist culture. Moreover, the political liberation and flourishing of civil society that resulted from the revolutionary situation soon came under attack by the Islamic government.;To shed light on this argument a comparative study of the 1906 and 1979 Iranian revolutions is undertaken in this thesis. The study of these two revolutions indicates the contrary to 1979, the opposition forces in 1906 has a positive perception of liberalism and struggled for popular sovereignty. Moreover, in 1906 nearly a decade of political opening created an opportunity for the general population to debate and reflect on competing ideas and opinions.