Intellectuals and political society in the Pahlavi era; The defeat of Leviathan built the intellectual community and the occurrence of the Islamic Revolution

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD Student in Political Science, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran

Abstract

According to Gramsci, the successful implementation of decisions, macro policies and strategies of any political system depends on the nature of government (civil society and political society). If the political community is not derived from civil society, decisions and policies will either not be implemented or, if implemented, will require high costs, resistance from members of the community, and ultimately the use of force. In the meantime, the formation of the state and its nature depend on the activity of intellectuals in Gramsci's intended sense. Therefore, the present study seeks to understand the role of intellectuals in political society and the factors influencing their failure to form a government in the Pahlavi period. The results show that in the late Qajar period, due to the lack of social status in civil society, intellectuals pursued the project of capturing political society by resorting to "enlightened tyranny". Since the intellectuals lacked power in the civic arena, they inevitably focused on eliminating their rivals by using Pahlavi and relying on coercion and force, in order to manipulate public culture by force of the sword and establish a foothold in the civil arena. Build and reproduce the semantic system of the modern state. The lack of precise vision of the intellectuals led them to create, in Hobbes' words, a "leviathan" with which to trade their freedom. But as Leviathan's power increased, so did his achievements, to the point that political society became the slaughterhouse of intellectuals.

Keywords

Political Sociology of Iran
Volume 5, Issue 7
September 2022
Pages 1026-1040

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics