پژوهشنامه علوم سیاسی
سال دوازدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 45، زمستان 1395)

Participation is one of the main indicators of political culture and good governance. The realization of good governance as one of the models of development is not possible without ruling principle of participation. Therefore, to examine the realization of good governance, we should examine the barriers to its index. Participation in Iran faces several obstacles, some of which should be found within the political culture. The main purpose of this article is to investigate the participation barriers in the political culture and good governance from the perspective of senior manager in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The main questions of this paper are: what are the main barriers of participation in the challenges between political culture and good governance? And what should be done to promote participation? The hypothesis here is that the most important barriers to political participation in the political culture of Iran are negative individualism, tyranny stroke, weakness of civil society, structural problems and rentier state and its size. Attention to the national interests and symbols, development of civil society and sovereignty of public determination can help to promote participation within the framework of good governance. For this purpose, we tried to examine the relationship of political culture and good governance with the emphasis on the participation as an indicator through qualitative research and interviews

In the post-Cold War era and after the end of ideological conflicts, capabilities have been distributed so that a highly distinctive position was considered for the United States as the hegemonic power; the position that based on the Gramsci "hegemony" theory, the physical and hard power, by itself, is not enough for its formation. Hegemony in the international system is the capabilities and innovations of a powerful state in international management style and its undisputed excellence to take advantage of economic, military, ideological and political resources. These capabilities are in the form of hard and soft resources. At this paper, we try to review human rights and the responsibility to protect the fundamental human rights being considered by countries and international community as the soft sources to create and reinforce the hegemony. Moreover, we are going to investigate the role of George W. Bush's unilateralism to reinforce and reconstruct the hegemony of this country in the international level after the decline of the United States power because of instrumental use of human rights and its responsibility to protect them. This type of instrumental and selective approach to the issue of human rights violations is clearly visible during the Arab uprisings in 2011. In this article, we will try to discuss at first hegemony and its elements based on the theory of Gramscian hegemony and the responsibility to protect doctrine. Then we will mention some examples of the selective approach of the United States to the human rights abuses and political use of the doctrine of the responsibility to protect.

Regional conflicts of Iran and Turkey in Iraq and Syria are related to the historical realities dominated on the relation of two countries. Simple dual readings could not explain the competition and conflict of two countries, because the issue is related to the long period models during the history which have brought about shifts in the regional power balance. Following Arab uprisings, this conflict is again influenced by the identity and security considerations in Iraq and Syria which relate ideological and value issues with geo-politics, power balance and regional roles. Therefore, regarding this hypothesis that Syria crisis and Iraq unrests have fueled the historical competition between Turkey and Iran as two strong governments in the Middle East so that the approach of both countries is to activate the models of power balance, strengthening their influence and removing the other's threat, the present study using historical-comparative method in the framework of realist Conflict theory is going to explain the identity and security challenges and concerns of the two countries.

This paper has been organized in two interpretation levels: structure of political and economic powers in new international system and the consequences of this structure on the geo-political developments of the Middle East. The hypothesis is that geo-political outputs of the Middle East are significantly affected by the disputes, rivalry and differences of powerful states, but the international competitions among European countries, America and Russia reinforce the existing polarity. Trying to manage the conflicts rather than to solve them, these countries take advantage of this polarity to sell their military weapons and to reach economic balance. Theory of Robert Kagan constitutes the theoretical framework of the study discussing the importance of position, political influence and economic transactions in international system. The paper takes into considerations the current economic status of America, modern goals of Russia, foreign policy legacy of Obama and motivational system of Israel in the new geo-political framework of the Middle East. The study concludes the emergence of a bipolar system in the Middle East in which the countries are going to weaken each other through regional and international coalitions. Continuation of this bipolarity depends upon the financial facilities of the regional actors, in one hand, and the result of America – Russia negotiations regarding their bilateral and European disputes.

From mid twenty century and with the emergence of behaviorism and second challenges in international relations studies, we witnessed the widespread application of quantitative techniques at this branch of science. Although some critics have questioned the approach, various scientists have continued their restless and severe efforts in the reliable academic centers around the world so that there is a rich literature in this field. In fact, the application of mathematics and mathematical methods finds its root in the history of science and philosophy although mathematics has experienced many differences in the past and present. At this research, we try to review the valuable background of the application of quantitative methods in political and international studies reaching the philosophical foundations of this approach. In this respect, we analyze the views of three famous scientists in social science named Descartes, Comte, and Kant. Despite existing critics, we present strong roots of this methodology in social science demanding more attention.

Versailles Peace Conference, which was formed by allies after World War 1, sought to build a postwar world being the harbinger of world peace. Utopian ideas supported by Wilson, President of America, particularly attracted the world public attention and created favorable conditions in the imagination of countries that experienced the unpleasant taste of war. One of these countries that despite neutrality in the war suffered heavy losses was Iran. At that time, Iran wanted to best use this exceptional opportunity to get its rights and real independence. Therefore, it sent representatives to Paris, but failed to achieve its interests. This study investigated the causes of the failure of the Iranian mission to attend the Versailles Peace Conference. Analyzing the factors imposed to the representatives of Iran, we divided them into four categories, and we finally conclude that the paradox between the idealist and realist ideas in the international relations at that time speed up that failure.

Post -revolutionary states in Iran have not achieved any success in escaping from an oil-dependent economy despite many slogans and programs. This article benefiting from historical institutionalism and revisionist versions of rentier state theory tries to show that state dependence to oil revenues in Iran in the first years after revolution stems from decisions of revolutionary elites to resolve peculiar challenges (of course elites had the opportunity to follow other models for the mobilization of the revenues in those years). Therefore, oil-dependence shaped an institutional feature of the post-revolutionary state. As a result, in every attempt to decrease the state dependence to oil revenues, we must pay attention to these institutional forces and their resistance against different economic and political conditions. Methodology of this article is based on descriptive –analytical method.