Sociology: Literature Review on Revolutions in Iran and Social Change

This sociology literature review examines the concept of revolutions, focusing on their characteristics, causes, and consequences. It explores the English revolution as a pivotal event and analyzes the evolution of revolutions, highlighting the significance of political fragility and the centralization of the modern state. The review delves into the Iranian revolution, discussing the role of Shah's regime, the impact of social unrest, and the influence of religious and political dualism. It references various scholarly works to provide a comprehensive understanding of revolutions, social structures, and the factors that contribute to political and social change, emphasizing the importance of understanding historical context in sociological analysis.

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Revolutions are often regarded as collective acts that are usually political which ultimately
results in a violent overthrow of regimes that are corrupt. Revolutions are often characterized by
a change in various social structures. This is to say that social structures can therefore not be
used to fully define revolution because a change in social structures could be the cause as well as
the result of a revolution. The English revolution is one of the first great revolutions because for
the first time ever in the history of the world an anointed king was publicly tried for a high
conspiracy of treason (Maghzi, Sahraian, Shaygannejad, Minagar, 2013).
Revolution has evolved. This is so because of the nature of their distinctiveness in the world's
history. Other factors that have also attributed to this is the issue of centralization of the modern
state as well as an expansion of the political society in conjunction with the process of national
integration. It is also suggested that the most decisive factor in a revolution or an item that could
really steer revolution is the fragility of a particular political system (Pakpoor & Ramagopalan,
2012). This, therefore, implies that amongst all modern political regimes, a monarch is more
susceptible to revolution. This is so mainly because the aspect of centralization in a monarchial
state tends to reduce at a very high extent the degree of pluralism in a certain social setting and
therefore increasing the political fragility.
A study on old age, as well as modern revolution, clearly reveals that all sorts of inhibitions
especially the ones that concern the use of all sorts of available coercive forces could be more
important that more extreme aspects of defeats, shortage, disintegrations as well as
inefficiencies. This fact has been very evident in the Iranian revolution. Based on facts relating to
the Iranian revolution, Shah had constructed a state machine around his person (Gholizadeh &
Hook, 2012). This simply meant that a collapse of the man could simply mean the collapse of the
machine. As times went by, Shah lost the will to fight and as a result, the state crumbled into

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pieces from within and out of a complete lack of momentum. Studies indicate that had it not been
for the incompetence of Shah, his dejection, bungling, indecisiveness as well as his bad luck then
the collapse of the monarchic region would not have happened any time soon as it had. In the
year 1978, the Shar had completely disappeared from the public eye and August the same year
serious riots were experienced in various areas such as Isfahan, Shiraz, Ahwaz and Tabriz where
there was serious looting and burning in restaurants, banks, and cinemas. This events greatly
contributed to the resignation of Prime Minister Amuzegar (Rahaghi, 2012). He complained
about the issue of a government that existed within a government. This remark was used to refer
some of the activities of SAVAK agents that had been specially designed to address Shah as well
as persuade him to fully reinstate the repression by fanning unrest. The Shah did not, however,
heed to what he was told but rather fully clamped down on the opposition. The Shah later
appointed Sharif-Emami who it happened he did not trust so much and would not, therefore,
allow him to deal with the crisis (Kurzman, 2012).
There also existed a dual structure if religious as well as political domination that remained
totally undisturbed throughout the entire Qajar period. The existence of this dualism was very
instrumental as it provided a basis with which there were possibilities that could not in any way
be neglected in the modern period by various political movements. Later in the 19th century,
quite a number of intellectual activists that had strong support of merchants uncovered and/or
revealed a tremendous political potential that the distinct clerical domination had for mass
mobilization. This resulted in an orchestration of a nationwide strike that led to the repeal of a
monopolistic tobacco concession to a British company. This was so instrumental in the Iranian
revolution as it resulted in the grant of a constitution from the Monarch (Ritter, 2012).

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References
Gholizadeh, S., & Hook, D. W. (2012). The discursive construction of the 1978–1979 Iranian
Revolution in the speeches of Ayatollah Khomeini. Journal of Community & Applied
Social Psychology, 22(2), 174-186.
Kurzman, C. (2012). The Arab Spring: Ideals of the Iranian green movement, methods of the
Iranian revolution. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 44(1), 162-165.
Maghzi, A. H., Sahraian, M. A., Shaygannejad, V., & Minagar, A. (2013). Is the Iranian
revolution to blame for the increasing incidence of multiple sclerosis in
Iran?. Neuroepidemiology, 40(1), 68-69.
Pakpoor, J., & Ramagopalan, S. V. (2012). Multiple sclerosis and the Iranian
revolution. Neuroepidemiology, 38(2), 122.
Rahaghi, J. (2012). New tools, old goals: Comparing the role of technology in the 1979 Iranian
Revolution and the 2009 Green Movement. Journal of Information Policy, 2, 151-182.
Ritter, D. P. (2012). Inside the Iron Cage of Liberalism: International Contexts and Nonviolent
Success in the Iranian Revolution. In Nonviolent Conflict and Civil Resistance (pp. 95-
121). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.