Study of Explanatory Variables in the Political Approach of the Islamic Revolution

Revolution is a turning point in human history which occurs due to fast and fundamental changes. These changes occur in a short period of time within the existing structures of a society, especially its political structure. Studies to explain the 1979 Iranian revolution, as one of the important political events in the late twentieth century, have been conducted using multiple cultural, political, economic and social approaches. The present paper tries to investigate the national and extra-national factors affecting the occurrence of Islamic Revolution by using the political approach. Different aspects of this approach are then analyzed, as it is the case for other studies trying to explain the Islamic Revolution. Therefore, the main question of this paper is: "What are national and extra-national political factors affecting the occurrence of the Islamic Revolution in 1979?" The method used to conduct this research is descriptive and documentary. The findings indicate that factors such as the despotic political system structure (one person in power, lack of political freedom, repression) administrative-political corruption (ingratiation and informal relationships, financial and moral corruption) neutralization and incompetence of the Army, imbalanced socio-economic development, and Shah's dependence on the US had a significant role in shaping and accelerating the Islamic Revolution.