scholarly journals On the Origins of Authoritarian Islamic Regime Foundations in the Middle East: The Case of Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alphan Telek

This article examines the way in which the Islamic regime in Iran was founded, what were the political and social conditions that convinced people for a regime change and, finally, what were the social consequences of and reactions to an authoritarian regime foundation in this country heavily populated by Muslims. This article argues that the experience of Iran provides a model framework to understand potential authoritarian Islamic regime foundations elsewhere. The article studies Iran’s contemporary political history in three phases: firstly, the socio-political atmosphere of the pre-revolutionary period, which could be deemed as preliminary years triggering the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Secondly, the period of the constitutive attempts towards an Islamic regime foundation through the 1980s is examined. Thirdly, the confrontation phase is probed where the social reactions against the Islamic regime foundation have taken place and increasingly intensified since the 1990s until now.

1913 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 191-197
Author(s):  
F. W. Hasluck

At the first appearance of the Ottomans, towards the close of the thirteenth century, Christian and Turk had already been living for two centuries side by side in the interior of Asia Minor under the rule of the Seljouk Sultans of Roum. The political history of this period is still emerging from obscurity: the social and religious history has hardly been touched. The Byzantine historians, concerned only incidentally with provinces already in partibus, give us no more than hints, and we have none of those personal and intimate records which are apt to tell us much more of social conditions than the most elaborate chronicle.The golden age of the Sultanate of Roum is undoubtedly the reign of Ala-ed-din I. (1219–1236), whose capital, Konia, still in its decay bears witness by monument and inscription to the culture and artistic achievement of his time. Ala-ed-din was a highly-educated man and an enlightened ruler. He was familiar with Christianity, having spent eleven years in exile at Constantinople. One of his predecessors, Kaikhosru I. (1192–6, 1204–10) who likewise spent an exile in Christendom, nearly became a Christian and married a Christian wife.


Author(s):  
Helen F. Siu

Physical symbols are not to be changed arbitrarily, but empires have related to subject populations with political notions quite different from and rather differently than those of modern nation-states. Sovereignty often means something different at the political center than in the margins, and the cultural kaleidoscope we call Hong Kong is a result of numerous historical landmarks on these notions. We are all too familiar with these events and how their political history is told today. Therefore, I would rather explore the social and cultural meanings of people’s lives on the ground; we may find interesting stories there that do not fit into any standard political categories.


Sexualities ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136346072096129
Author(s):  
John Andrew G Evangelista

Homonationalism refers to how the West folded LGBTQ rights into the nation through neoliberal economies, intervention, and surveillance of racialized communities. This shift relied on the exceptionalist narrative that reveres Western sexual liberation—liberal, bureaucratic, visible, and consumerist—while silencing queer narratives from Southern, racialized, and migrant communities. The literature found that some LGBTQ (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and queers) organizations deployed this imperial narrative, yet accounts on the social conditions facilitating such deployments remain scant. To expand the current discussions, my paper situates the Philippine LGBTQ movement’s affinity with homonationalism within the political, material, and ideological exigencies that confronted activists.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 237802311668979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph DiGrazia

Scholars have recently become increasingly interested in understanding the prevalence and persistence of conspiratorial beliefs among the public as recent research has shown such beliefs to be both widespread and to have deleterious effects on the political process. This article seeks to develop a sociological understanding of the structural conditions that are associated with conspiratorial belief. Using aggregate Google search data to measure public interest in two popular political conspiracy theories, the findings indicate that social conditions associated with threat and insecurity, including unemployment, changes in partisan control of government, and demographic changes, are associated with increased conspiratorial ideation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 536-542
Author(s):  
V. L. Muzykant ◽  
M. A. Muqsith

The article considers the relationship between the 2020 regional elections in Indonesia under the covid-19 pandemic, public space, and political activism in the social media. The covid-19 pandemic has changed the social, political and cultural fabric of the contemporary world. First, the covid-19 threatened the countrys healthcare system, then it affected other aspects of social life, including the political sphere. The pandemic has been exacerbated by the spread of misinformation about the covid-19, which is also known as the infodemic. Thus, the covid-19 pandemic influenced the choice of holding elections or delaying it until the situation is under control. The development of the social media encourages political activism in the political public sphere and makes it more diverse in the sphere of egalitarianism. The political public sphere becomes increasingly dynamic and critical to various policies. Indonesia did not postpone the 2020 regional elections under the covid-19 crisis. According to the health protocol, this decision had its pros and cons in the digital space. The authors show that political activists in the social media called for prioritizing health rather than the process of democratization through elections, while the government supporters insisted on having elections even in the covid-19 pandemic situation. Finally, the 2020 regional elections were held but were followed by various incidents. The question is whether the governments argument to hold elections under the covid-19 pandemic was reasonable or, on the contrary, contributed to the wider spread of the covid-19 in Indonesia. Deliberative democracy should consider civil participation as the main pillar of the political system, which is relevant for the new social reality as based on the new social media technologies.


Author(s):  
Masoud Vali Arab ◽  
Hamid Asad Pour ◽  
Hamid Peighambary ◽  
Ali Rasouli

Shushtar as one of the most important cities of Khuzestan in safavid era was inhabited by some officials and rulers mostly due to its specific geographical, strategic and military situation during the rule of Safavid dynasty. The establishment of new villages in Shushtar and its surroundings areas by the local rulers caused this city to grow and develop more. In the same regard, due to the entering of many different clans and tribes to Shushtar in the Safavid period, extensive ethnic conflicts emerged in this city. Turk Qizilbash (Shamlus, Rumlus, Afshars, Ustodjlus, Turkmens, and Dulghadirs), Chagatai family, Circassia, Georgians, great religious scholars from Jabal Amel region, Jazayeri and Kalantar Sadats were among the tribes and clans entering Shushtar in the Safavid period. At the end of this period, natural disasters such as flood influenced Shushtar status both socially and politically to a great extent. The current study attempts to describe the political and social conditions of Shushtar during the Safavid period, aiming to answer this question: Why was Shushtar under the spotlight by the Safavid rulers and inhabited by most governmental rulers and authorities? It is hypothesized in this study that due to the geographical and military situation, Shushtar have always been considered as a defensive barrier by the Safavids against Mushashaiyah central bases in the South of Khuzestan, and Ranshis bases in the North of Khuzestan and also against Bakhtiyari Khans. Unquestionably, taking into consideration the topics such as ethnic origin, tribal interests, occupation state, religious and social values, and changing or modification of each case can give provide us with some useful information about the social and political life of Shushtar in the Safavid period.


Sexualities ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 1182-1196
Author(s):  
Jessica Kean

In queer theory ‘heteronormativity’ has become a central tool for understanding the social conditions of our sexual and intimate lives. The term is most often used to shed light on how those lives are patterned in a way that shapes and privileges binary genders and heterosexual identities, lifestyles and practices. Frequently, however, ‘heteronormativity’ is stretched beyond its capacity when called upon to explain other normative patterns of intimacy. Drawing on Cathy Cohen’s (1997) ground breaking essay ‘Punks, bulldaggers and welfare queens: The radical potential of queer?’, this article argues that analysing the political landscape of our intimate lives in terms of heteronormativity alone fails to adequately account for the way some familial and sexual cultures are stigmatised along class and race lines. This article gestures towards examples of those whose intimacies are unquestionably marginalised and yet non-queer, or at least not-necessarily-queer, placing Cohen’s ‘welfare queens’ alongside examples from contemporary Australia public culture to argue for the critical efficacy of the concept ‘mononormativity’ for intersectional analysis.


2021 ◽  
pp. 179-196
Author(s):  
Ella G. Zadorozhnyuk ◽  

In 1998, the Czech Republic underwent a radical shift from the confrontational/conflicted political style of the first half of the 1990s to a pragmatic/consensual style. The leaders of the two largest political parties - the center-left Czech Social Democratic Party and the center-right Civic Democratic Party - signed the Opposition Treaty. From that point, it is possible to describe a new political mechanism that reformed the framework of cooperation between the Social Democrats and the Civil Democrats. These techniques of negotiation appeared again, and in a modified version, after another turning point in Czech political history, when the Action movement of disaffected citizens focusing on pragmatic solutions, made a compromise agreement with the CPCzM in 2011. This style of political decision-making can also be given a more expansive interpretation: it can be seen as a specific feature of the political history of a state located in the heart of Europe, economically prosperous and politically extremely turbulent.


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