Clerical aspiration for governance in Iran is not a phenomenon that originated with the revolution of 1978-79. It has roots that go back at least three centuries and are well established in Iranian cultural tradition. The current regime is the only fully functioning theocracy in the world at present. It has managed to stabilize its rule and is likely to persist even after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, its current leader. Internal decay is likely to be the only source of political change in Iran for the immediate future.
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References
1.
1. Nikki Keddie, Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History of Modern Iran (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981), p. 18.
2.
See also Michael Fischer, Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980), pp. 10-13 on the “Karbala [sic] paradigm.”
3.
3. Keddie, Roots of Revolution, p. 8.
4.
4. “Ayatollah” is a religious title meaning “image” or “reflection” of God.
5.
5. Cf. Hamid Algar, “The Oppositional Role of the Ulema in Twentieth Century Iran,” in Scholars, Saints and Sufis, ed. Nikki Keddie (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972).
6.
6. Cf. William Beeman, “Images of the Great Satan: Symbolic Conceptions of the United States in the Iranian Revolution,” in Religion and Politics in Iran, ed. Nikki Keddie (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983).
7.
7. Cf. Mangol Bayat-Phillip, “Shi'ism in Contemporary Iranian Politics: The Case of Ali Shari'ati,” in Iran: Toward Modernity, ed. Sylvia Haim and Elie Kedourie (London: Frank Cass, 1980).
