The Dialectical Dilemma of the Iranian Intellectual: Statism or Anti-statism

Abstract

In this article, after the Constitution, Iranian intellectuals on the basis of which institution or field should be considered for the cause of modernization, civilization, development, or other related concepts are divided into two groups. The first group considers the state the cause for development and the second group that seeks the agent outside the domain of state. The question is which of the two theories have been more successful in their claims according to their historical results. The claim and hypothesis of this study is that the theories of the second group, in the search for ways of direct development of the state, eventually hinder reform, engage in direct conflict with the state, and lead the process of society's transformation to a revolution or a repressive state. To justify this claim, this article will look at the history of Iranian intellectual development theories after the Constitution. The research method in this paper is "Inference based on the best explanation ", abbreviated as IBE. It seems that in the first two constitutional and Pahlavi periods, statism and in the second Pahlavi and Islamic Republic era anti-statism were dominant. During the Second Pahlavi era and the Islamic Republic, two types of ideas were produced that were common to anti-statism and the main criticisms included: Theories of return to self and backwardness degeneration. Both are equally guilty of delaying the creation of a proper relationship between the state and the nation in the light of upholding up-to-date citizen rights and maintaining the sovereignty of the state.

Keywords

• statism anti-statism iranian intellectuals