Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1993

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Political Science

Major Professor

Vernon R. Iredell

Committee Members

Donald Clifford

Abstract

This research is an attempt to explain the Islamic revolution of Iran using a theoretical framework known as resource mobilization in the studies of social movements and revolutions. More specifically, I will focus on Charles Tilly's resource mobilization model and try to test its applicability in the Iranian case. The model juxtaposes "causal explanation," which traces the effects of long-term structural factors, with "purposive explanation," which analyzes underlying reasons why groups make real choices for mobilizing their resources. Collective action, joint action in pursuit of shared interests, is a function of interests, organization, and mobilization. Contraiding groups engage in intentional collective action within a set of structural and institutional constraints. This research employs the case-oriented comparative method to demonstrate the relative utility of the resource mobilization paradigm. This study analyzes the trajectory of state-building and modernization in Iran as a significant explanatory variable. The structure of the state and its relationship to social classes and groups and its impacts on various groups' resources are central to understanding the dynamics of the revolutionary movement in Iran. The study shows that the rentier state capitalism in Iran was a particularly vulnerable institution that could not tolerate structural crises. When the opportunity presented itself, the intelligentsia, the clergy, the bazaar, the industrial working class, and the modern middle class formed a multi-class revolutionary coalition under the leadership of the clergy which eventually managed to assume state power. It was the preponderant control of the clergy over institutional and normative resources and ineffective coercive control by the state that gave it enormous mobilizing potency. The eventual entry of the industrial working class and the modern middle class expanded the commitment to the alternative polity and led to the creation of multiple sovereignty and, after the disintegration of the armed forces, the collapse of the state in February 1979. Although Tilly's resource mobilization framework is of considerable value in explaining the Iranian revolution, major modifications were made to accommodate the historical particularities of the case. These included reconceptualization of power, interests, and resources. The study finds that the impact of Shi'i political ideology on interest formation and articulation, culturally-embedded resources and meaning systems, and regime type are key variables to which Tilly's resource mobilization model is not attentive.

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