Postrevolutionary Iran - by Mehrzad Boroujerdi & Kourosh Rahimkhani (Hardcover)
About this item
Highlights
- The 1979 revolution fundamentally altered Iran's political landscape as a generation of inexperienced clerics who did not hail from the ranks of the upper class--and were not tainted by association with the old regime--came to power.
- About the Author: Mehrzad Boroujerdi is O'Hanley Faculty Scholar and professor of political science at Syracuse University's Maxwell School, and former president of the International Society for Iranian Studies.
- 896 Pages
- Political Science, World
Description
About the Book
Postrevolutionary Iran: A Political Handbook is a collection of comprehensive data on political life in postrevolutionary Iran, including over 100 tables and charts and over 2,000 biographical entries about Iranian political elites.Book Synopsis
The 1979 revolution fundamentally altered Iran's political landscape as a generation of inexperienced clerics who did not hail from the ranks of the upper class--and were not tainted by association with the old regime--came to power. The actions and intentions of these truculent new leaders and their lay allies caused major international concern. Meanwhile, Iran's domestic and foreign policy and its nuclear program have loomed large in daily news coverage. Despite global consternation, however, our knowledge about Iran's political elite remains skeletal. Nearly four decades after the clergy became the state elite par excellence, there has been no empirical study of the recruitment, composition, and circulation of the Iranian ruling members after 1979.
Postrevolutionary Iran: A Political Handbook provides the most comprehensive collection of data on political life in postrevolutionary Iran, including coverage of 36 national elections, more than 400 legal and outlawed political organizations, and family ties among the elite. It provides biographical sketches of more than 2,300 political personalities ranging from cabinet ministers and parliament deputies to clerical, judicial, and military leaders, much of this information previously unavailable in English. Providing a cartography of the complex structure of power in postrevolutionary Iran, this volume offers a window not only into the immediate years before and after the Iranian Revolution but also into what has happened during the last four turbulent decades. This volume and the data it contains will be invaluable to policymakers, researchers, and scholars of the Middle East alike.Review Quotes
The handbook is invaluable in the breadth and depth of the data it offers, from the complex history of the many conventional and non-conventional political institutions of the Islamic Republic to the socioeconomic backgrounds of the people who populated those institutions, and still to the degrees of electoral support garnered by different
branches of government.
A monumental achievement. I am unaware of any other source that provides such a rich collection of political data about Iran. Western political scientists often complain about the lack of longitudinal data in order to apply modern analytical techniques to the politics of Third World countries. This compendium goes very far to respond to that need.-- "Gary Sick, Columbia University"
As an exhaustive and systematically organized compilation of data and reliable information on the postrevolutionary Iranian political elites (including their social and regional origins, career paths, and ideological orientations, family ties, etc.), as well as chronologies of major events and detailed descriptive statistics on key state institutions, political parties and elections at all levels, this pioneering work will serve not only as an indispensable standard reference for the study of Iranian politics, but also as an invaluable source of data and ideas for empirically-based studies by scholars and student of Iran for years to come.-- "Ali Banuazizi, Professor of Political Science, Boston College"
Boroujerdi and Rahimkhani have mapped out, with impressive rigor and erudition, the often inter-locking military, clerical, and political elite that has ruled Iran for the last thirty seven years. As much a book about Who Rules Iran as a Who's Who in the halls of power in the Islamic Republic of Iran. An indispensable source for anyone studying modern Iranian society and politics.-- "Abbas Milani, Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies, Stanford University"
The 445-page "Who's Who" is remarkable for its scope, presenting biographical information on over 2,300 people, noting uniquely important information including family ties, pre-revolution imprisonment, and service in the Iran-Iraq war.-- "Middle East Quarterly"
This product of 14 years of teamwork is an indispensable reference source for anyone with serious interest in contemporary Iran. . . . The work can justly be placed among the best elite studies done recently anywhere in the world.-- "Ervand Abrahamian, author of Iran between Two Revolutions"
This work is notable not only for its scope but also because the authors have made much of the data available to scholars through their website. This book is one of a kind and will be invaluable to those who study Iranian history and politics.-- "Middle East Librarians Association"
About the Author
Mehrzad Boroujerdi is O'Hanley Faculty Scholar and professor of political science at Syracuse University's Maxwell School, and former president of the International Society for Iranian Studies. He is the author of Iranian Intellectuals and the West: The Tormented Triumph of Nativism and editor of Mirror for the Muslim Prince: Islam and the Theory of Statecraft.
Kourosh Rahimkhani is a doctoral candidate in political science at Binghamton University. His research focuses on politics of ethnoreligious identities, nondemocratic elections, and authoritarian politics.
