Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1990

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Political Science

Major Professor

Joseph Dodd

Committee Members

Gill Evans, Donald Cleland, Vernon Iredell

Abstract

Skocpol's theory of revolution, the main concern of which is to explain why social revolution has been the crucial vehicle of transformation in a number of societies, has been applied to the Iranian Revolution for the purpose of evaluating its generalizability and its predictive and explanatory power in order to explore further the possibility of generating a theory which can be applied universally across time and societies. Skocpol, with a new analytical emphasis on a number of factors such as the structural approach, the potential autonomy of the state, and the international and world historical contexts, has developed a comprehensive theory of revolution. She argues that the breakdown of societal control is due to international pressures, peasants' insurrections, and the presence of a marginal elite. The history of the formation of the modern Iranian state, the type and extent of inter- and intranational pressures, the structure of peasants' life and their relation to state and large landowners, the relevant historical background of Shia political thought, the Ulama's role in Iranian society and in oppositional movements of the last two centuries, have been reviewed in order to measure the applicability, validity, and generalizability of Skocpol's theory. The study concludes that Skocpol's theory requires a number of major modifications in the formulation of causes of state incapacitation, peasants' revolutionary movement, and the role of ideology and leadership. Her emphasis on the role of state and transnational realities was found to be, though with modification, an important contribution to the analysis of social revolutions. Finally, the study suggests that attempts should not be made to develop universal generalization because of logical-theoretical problems and the nature of social revolution, most notably its non-repetitiveness and rare occurrence.

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