Iranian Regulation: Governmentality and Rising the Modern State in Iran

Assistant Professor at Science and Culture University of Tehran Discursive contexts of modern state emergence in Iran dates back to the years 1851-1887. During this period, some major events helped to form the common political history in Iran and the idea of the modern state and national identity become problematic. The purpose of the present research is to encounter with the current trends of theorizing the history of the state in Iran and, on the other hand, put the idea of a modern state and a nation-building project in the context of real and forgotten events. Referring to cholera and famine as two major events in Iran's contemporary history (but forgotten under the prevailing narrations), we examined the relationship between the Iranian regulation discourse and the emergence of a modern state. Governmentality is the central concept of the theoretical perspective in this article. Using this perspective, we attempted to explain the formation of Iranian regulation. In other words, we focused on the governing poverty, which is the result of cholera, and governing the wealth as well. In addition, these two governing trends and their relationship with the idea of the modern state.