نشریه علوم سیاسی
سال هشتم شماره 2 (پیاپی 30، تابستان 1384)

Man is a being with the two material and spiritual dimensions. Scientific explanation, practical depiction, and objective realization of the two dimensions of man and human society simultaneously are inevitable. The current intellectual and scientific approaches have neglected the transcendental dimension of man in the political and social arena and even denied it. This incompatible mono-dimensional trend has nowadays appeared in the form of modernist absolute relativism and epistemological nihilism which resulted in many social, economical, and cultural crises in internal and international domains. Thus, transcendental politics and transcendental thought and political science can form the future perspective of political science at the internal level, the Islamic world level and even at the global level. The challenge in front of the transcendental political science is understanding the necessity of this scientific explanation, practical depiction, and objective realization of this science.

Characterizing the boundaries between a discipline and other disciplines is one of the requirements of the discipline. This is the case in regard to the Islamic Revolution, too. Is the study of Islamic Revolution, whether in terms of “the sociology of revolution” or “the history of the Islamic Revolution”, an independent field of study? Can one draw its boundaries? Or, is it a sub-discipline of political sciences? Is it an interdisciplinary field of study? Specialization of sciences, the importance of the issues of the Islamic Revolution and its role in the private and collective life of communities show the necessity of answering the questions. Thus, the present paper elaborates on the following points:1.drawing the existing situation and the capacities of the Islamic Revolution in Iran,2.depicting the ideal condition of this field,3.the present and the future vacuums and needs of doing research in this field,4.the challenges and barriers limiting the development of the field,5.strategies and programs suggested for the improvement of the field.

Political Fiqh as discipline does not have a long history in Iran. The victory of Islamic revolution in 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic system on the basis of the Theory of Wellayat-e Faqih draw the attention of some Iranian scholars and writers to this discipline. Before the triumph of the Islamic revolution, except the extensive and elaborate Theory of Wellayat-e Faqih presented by Imam Khomeini, there was no other attention to political Fiqh. However, after the triumph of the revolution, when some of the academic courses were being changes and improved, a three-credit course called “political Fiqh” was added to postgraduate level courses of the political sciences. This was a fruitful measure which provided the grounds for paying more attention to political Fiqh as an independent discipline.

In this paper, I will present a brief overview of teaching and research in international relations program in the Iranian universities. I will survey the history of international studies in Iran and the measures taken to develop the realm of international relations studies and the establishment of its sub-disciplines in Iran after the Islamic revolution. Finally, I will examine the teaching and research situations of the program and the capacities existing in the native and religious culture.

The present paper studies the mutual effects of politics and power on the geographical environment, that is to say, the effects of the political decisions on geographical environment. To do so, after explaining the procedure of the formation and the vicissitudes of the history of political geography in the world, the paper concentrates on conditions of political geography in Iran. Geography, especially military geography, in Iran first came into focus in 1931 with a book called The Comprehensive Geography of Iran written by Mas’ood Keihan. But, the founder of political geography and geopolitics as a discipline is Dr. Mir-Heidar who wrote The Principles of Political Geography in 1968. Tarbiat Modarres University’s measure to initiate a Ph.D. program in political geography in 1987 is a turning point in the history of the discipline in Iran. This encouraged other universities to set up the program at different levels. Since the 90s the discipline ascended to its peak in Iran. The paper also focuses on the conditions of political geography departments in the Iranian universities and on the future perspective, the capabilities, and the predicaments of political geography.

Methodologies are based on epistemologies and regimes of knowledge in any civilization are the basis of ways of thinking and life of a nation, in general, and their political life, in specific. The political knowledge of the Islamic middle era, too, follows a particular regime of knowledge and depends on the same general regime of knowledge. This knowledge is characterized by human nature system, the necessity of revelation and prophecy, the religious basis of reason and philosophy, and the rational and philosophical basis of Shari’a, the world of text, the priority of text, and prevalence of political Fiqh. In addition, the nature of methodologies is dependent on nature of the basic methodology and on subjects and specific issues of a science. Finally, the paper deals with the starting point of the analysis of the nature of the political in Islamic middle, i.e. the sultanate order.

Positivism, hermeneutics, and critical-cultural theory were three discourses which emerged in the 60s. Critical theory seriously challenged other discourses and its central theme is the denial and approval of the different domains (science, economy, politics, education, mass culture, etc.) of the late capitalism society. Late capitalism gradually appeared in the 20th century along with the appearance of welfare states. At this stage, Capitalism distanced from the early ideal form (liberal democracy) to some extent, bearing widespread crises. The philosophical foundation of critical theory is based on the epistemology rooted in the triple technical-instrumental, scientific or interpretive, and emancipatory interests. Their difference with other critical theories is in their emancipation. This theory criticizes positivism due to its ideological dimensions and condemns the postmodernist thought because it devalues the foundations of knowledge, leaves no difference between knowledge and ignorance, and diminishes the will to advance. The theory also criticizes the conservatism underlying in hermeneutics because it is unable to uncover the distortions of capitalist society.

In regard with political processes and social effects, a revolution is composed of three stages: the collapse of the former regime, the multiplicity of power centers, and the formation of a new order. The period of the multiplicity of power centers, starting in Iran form the overcoming of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and lasting up to the disposal of Bani Sadr, brings up chaos and anarchy. Combining Crane Brinton and Charles Tilly's theories, this paper describes the characteristics of the above-mentioned period is the Islamic Revolution and studies the changes in the period. In sum, in spite of the existence of certain similarities between the period of moderate groups in Brinton's theory and the period in the Islamic Revolution, there are also many differences. In addition, apart from the organization variables, public mobilization, and political power in Tilly's theory, other factors (e.g. the Imam's support, the type of ideology etc.) were also influential in the rise and fall of political movements in the period.

Mullah Sadra is the originator of transcendental wisdom who had some ideas about politics and government, but they may not be an original, comprehensive, and noteworthy set of ideas on politics and government. His remarks on relative qualities, man’s civil nature, fundamental happiness, and classes of people and cities are not much different from the political philosophy of the Walking philosophers. His political philosophy, like that of the other Islamic classic philosophers, is evaluated as authoritarian. Not only did not he mention “transcendental political wisdom”, but its reconstruction, too, seems difficult or fruitless. One cannot directly relate Mullah Sadra’s political thought and the political authority of jurisprudents.

Due to the important role of government in politics and socio-political life of people, intellectual schools, religions, and scholars have paid special attention to the end of government. Thus, the most pivotal concern of the Shiite political thought was the providing an explanation for the future of government and presenting a comprehensive and relatively exact picture of government and its realization (on the basis of revelation and the supernatural) through the global government of Imam Mahdi. His government is a moral (perfectionist and reviver of spirit) government and its most important goal is the moral and intellectual growth of man and leading him to the ultimate perfection (reaching God). At the same time, he will perform other functions of government in light of this major function so that man can attain happiness.

To enter into political discussions and political sociology issues, one cannot neglect political trends especially in the recent century because part, or a major part, of political games is played by political trends. In addition, what has completely been neglected in the political literature of Iran is presenting a model for studying political trends. The existing sources had a descriptive view to the emergence and activities of political trends and did not evaluate them through a logical and practical model. Few sources deal with the variables of political formations. The present paper not only considers some important and essential variables for political trends study (from the factors influencing on the formation of groups to the sources of power and legitimacy) but also introduces features for each variable on basis of which one can comparatively evaluate political group or party carefully. The model helps to prevent the influences of values and opinions of the research on the research.