Moving in a Paradoxical Direction A look at how culture, politics and economics interacted in Qajar-era Iran

Social phenomena are not generated spontaneously. To understand them exactly, we need to probe into history as the main source of research, which is also the case when we want to study the root causes of Iran's sustained underdevelopment despite having the conditions for development. In such a study it is necessary to go through various stages of Iran's historical development, from which the period of the Qajar dynasty is particularly important. Studying the historical events in this period helps us better understand the obstacles in the way of the country's development. In this paper an inter-disciplinary approach is followed to understand how the social subsystems interacted to create a cycle of underdevelopment in Iran. After a brief definition of culture and development, the role of the state in the national development of Iran during the Qajar period is discussed and then we try to investigate the output of thoughts and intellectual order of this period and analyze demand for and supply of cultural products. Later on we examine factors that inevitably led to autocracy and semi-colonial rule and conditions in the country, particularly the emphasis would be on brokerage mentality of people and their skepticism towards outside forces. A weak written cultural and its role in the continuation of underdevelopment is also underlined and finally we give some suggestions to break the vicious cycles of underdevelopment in this country.