The Causes of the Constitutional Revolution in Iran

Bibliographic Data

ID5841765
AuthorsErvand Abrahamian (City University of New York, corresponding author)
Year1979
Volume10
Issue3
Pages381-414
Publication date1979-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743800000179
OpenAlexW2080482876
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited23

Marx, the prophet of revolution, may no longer haunt conservative politicians, but Marx, the theorist of revolution, continues to both attract and arouse social scientists. In the words of one student of politics, the social sciences, especially political sociology, can be described as a 'century-long dialogue with Karl Marx.' And as one prominent historian of ideas has aptly stated, Marx can properly be called the midwife of twentieth-century social thought, 'for in the process of discarding what they had found invalid in Marxism and explaining what aspects of it had proved helpful, the innovators of the late nineteenth century took their first steps towards constructing a more general theory of social reality.' For example, Emile Durkheim developed the paradigm of 'mechanical and organic solidarity' to counter the theory of class struggle. Vilfred Pareto and Gaetano Mosca stressed the dichotomy between ruling elites and ruled masses to supplant the concept of socioeconomic classes. Robert Michels formulated the 'iron law of oligarchy' to warn that popular organizations, such as the Social Democratic Parties, would bring in not the era of democratic socialism but the autocracy of bureaucratic socialists.' And Max Weber, of course, devoted much of his career to showing that the dynamics of class conflict should be studied concomitantly with the heavy weights of conservative ideologies, traditional religions, ethnic castes, and bureaucratic institutions

Autocracy · Bureaucracy · Class conflict · Communism · Democracy · Ideology · Oligarchy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Ruling class · Social science · Socialism · Sociology · Solidarity · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

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