Echoes of revolution
Subtitle: Iran's path into the modern world
By: Michael J. McMillan
Publisher: Naval Postgraduate School; Available from National Technical Information Service
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Monterey, Calif; Springfield, Va
Language: eng
Number of pages: 109
Description: The 1979 Islamic Revolution has become for Western scholars and native Islamists alike the defining event of      the Iranian experience. Shrouded in the garb of political Islam, the revolution represents to the American mind a      step backward into a future of pre-industrial authoritarianism rejection of modernity. This thesis asserts that the      cycles of Iranian social and political upheaval are in fact outgrowths of changes in the state's socio-political      structure resulting from a transition in the mode of production and subsequent capitalization of the economy.      The resulting attempts by an emerging middle class to balance political with economic viability consequently      produced a series of structural corrections beginning with the Constitutional Revolution of 1906. While not the      culminating event of Iranian societal development, the 1979 Islamic Revolution represents an opportunity for      middle class hegemony. The direct outcome of the Islamic Revolution-the circulation of elites, is likely to evolve      into a power-sharing arrangement in which the interests of the modern middle class dominate. As a      recognizably populist event, the Islamic Revolution ultimately represents Iran's path into the world.
Notes: Thesis advisor(s): Glenn E. Robinson.

"June 1998."

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs) Naval Postgraduate School, June 1998.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-107)

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited.

Also available online.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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US Navy (USN) author

dk/dk cc:9116 09/30/98.