A comparative account of land and politics during the reign of the second Pahlavi

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of History, Shabestar Branch, islamic Azad University, , Shabestar, Iran,

2 Department of History, Islamic Azad University, Shabestar Branch, Shabestar, Iran,

3 Department of History, ، University of Tabriz,,, , Tabriz, Iran,

Abstract

Land reform was one of the most important programs implemented during the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah and brought about profound changes in the field of land ownership, class structure, social mobility and the composition of the ruling groups. The aim was to implement social and political land reforms, the main consequences of which were to break the political and social influence of the owners. This research has used a descriptive-analytical method and the events have been analyzed using historical documents, memoirs of politicians and interviews with eyewitnesses.In this study, the hypothesis is that the socio-political consequences of land reform led to the growth and intensification of urban marginalization and ultimately the spread and strengthening of radicalism among young people. Findings show that the occurrence of land reform led to large-scale migration of villagers to cities, and because these villagers had low incomes, they were forced to live on the outskirts of large cities, which intensified and increased urban marginalization.In the political arena, the implementation of land reforms led to the weakening of the power of the landlords and increased the influence and concentration of government power in the villages. In this study, an attempt has been made to answer the question of why there is a connection between land and politics during the second Pahlavi regime.

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