Iran's Experiment with Parliamentary Governance - (Modern Intellectual and Political History of the Middle East) by Mangol Bayat (Paperback)

About the Book

Mangol Bayat provides a much-needed detailed analysis of the Iranian constitutional revolution historic episode, examining the national and international actors, and the political climate that engendered one crisis after another, ultimately leading to its fateful end. Bayat highlights the radical transformation of old institutions and the innovation of new ones, and most importantly, shows how this term provided a reasonably successful model of parliament imposing its will on the executive power that was primarily composed of old-guard, elite leaders. At the same time, Bayat challenges the traditional perception among scholars that reform attempts failed due to sectarian politics and ideological differences.

Book Synopsis

For the past several decades, scholars have studied and written about the Iranian constitutional revolution with the 1979 Islamic Revolution as a subtext, obscuring the secularist trend that characterized its very nature. Constitutionalist leaders represented a diverse composite of beliefs, yet they all shared a similar vision of a new Iran, one that included far-reaching modernizing reforms and concepts rooted in the European Enlightenment. The second national assembly (majles), during its brief two-year term, aspired to legislate these reforms in one of the most important experiments in parliamentary governance.

Mangol Bayat provides a much-needed detailed analysis of this historic episode, examining the national and international actors, and the political climate that engendered one crisis after another, ultimately leading to its fateful end. Bayat highlights the radical transformation of old institutions and the innovation of new ones, and most importantly, shows how this term provided a reasonably successful model of parliament imposing its will on the executive power that was primarily composed of old-guard, elite leaders. At the same time, Bayat challenges the traditional perception among scholars that reform attempts failed due to sectarian politics and ideological differences.

Review Quotes

Bayat's latest contribution to Iranian Studies is groundbreaking. Her work is a must-read for those who study the period of the Constitutional Revolution.-- "International Journal of Asian Studies"

By providing a rich and much needed account on the intricacies of the Majles, Bayat expertly demonstrates how it was the interference of Britain and Russia rather than any intrinsic deficiencies in Iran's capacity for democracy that continually undermined and eventually crushed the country's 'experiment with parliamentary governance'.-- "Middle Eastern Studies"

Bayat offers a detailed history of the second Majlis (parliament) following the early 20th-century constitutional revolution in Iran, which she thoroughly studied 30 years ago. Highly recommended.-- "Choice"

A tour de force revealing both how the imperial powers undermined democracy and how eager the early reformers were in striving to establish parliamentary government in Iran. This groundbreaking work--a worthy continuation of her earlier work on the First Majles--helps debunk the widely accepted notion that early twentieth-century Iran was not yet ready for parliamentary government.-- "Ervand Abrahamian, Baruch College, City University of New York"

Bayat's Iran's Experiment with Parliamentary Governance is simply magisterial in terms of sources, contexts, and analysis, but its importance goes beyond the hitherto neglected Second Majlis to re-center secular liberalism as the major thread in the whole of the Constitutional period, 1905-1911, with its preceding developments in the late 19th century and in Iran's subsequent history.-- "G. R. Garthwaite, Dartmouth College"

Bayat's study has enriched Middle Eastern and more so, Iranian studies. Students of history, political science, and perhaps sociology, have much to gain from her outstanding attention to detail and breadth of coverage of the second session of the Majles.-- "Middle East Journal"

This is one of the finest works on the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. . . . Bayat's meticulous scholarship has substantially raised the stakes in analyzing Iran's Constitutional Revolution.-- "Mehrzad Boroujerdi, author of Postrevolutionary Iran: A Political Handbook"

About the Author

Mangol Bayat has taught Middle Eastern history at several universities, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Iowa, and Harvard University. She is the author of Mysticism and Dissent: Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Iran and Iran's First Revolution: Shi'ism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1909.