Peripheral Iran and the Transformation of Government-Nation Relations in the First Pahlavi Reign

One of the fundamental concerns in the political sociology of any society is the nature of government in that society. Governments have various economic, social, cultural and political natures. In the present paper, the effect of Iran’s peripheral position in the global system on the transformation of government-nation relations during the first Pahlavi reign is studied. The purpose of the study is to examine the necessary measures of the Pahlavi government with regards to its peripheral position, and to discuss its nature and features. Firstly, the assumption of the authors in this paper is that the economic reconstruction of the Pahlavi government has been in line with harmonizing Iran’s economy with the requirements of the global capitalist system. The second assumption also puts emphasis on the extension of militarism and supervising each and every field of society by Reza Shah. In total, this paper considers the transformations in the government-nation relations of the first Pahlavi reign to be a reaction to Iran’s peripheral position in the global system. The study was conducted with the historical sociology approach and through a documentary method. The results showed that both measures done during the first Pahlavi government, that is, economic reconstruction and the extension of supervision on every aspect of the collective life of the society, has been related to Iran’s peripheral position in the global system.