Islamic revolution as a conceptual revolutionCase study: concepts of republicanism and Islamism

Revolution, as a political event, leads to major transformations in concrete and abstract structures. The concepts of "Republic" and "Islamism" are among the concepts that entered ideological conflicts between different groups as a result of familiarization of Iranians with Western political concepts. The event of the revolution can be seen as the triumphant return of these concepts in the very important debates over determining the form of the government, with the phrase "Islamic Republic, not one word less and not one word more". Based on this, this article seeks to answer the question, what changes have the political concepts of the Islamic Republic undergone as a result of the revolution? What impact has this conceptual evolution had on the expectations of the Iranian society and ultimately on the political structures created? It seems that creating a break in the meaning of the concepts of "Republic" and "Islamism" and examining the existing competitions over these two concepts shows that the prevailing understanding, perception and interpretation of the meaning of political concepts can give shape and direction to political structures. The special perception of these concepts in shaping the horizon of expectation of the Iranian society caused the creation of a special type of institutions in the post-revolutionary society, which ultimately led to the imposition of limited choices in "historical futures". In this article, the first chapter of the Constitution, the first to the sixth principles, along with the detailed discussions about the draft text, as well as the final discussions of the review of the Constitution by the Assembly of Experts, using the approach of the history of concepts, with the aim of discovering and breaking down the meaning of these concepts, have been considered.