A Comparative Analysis of Democratization in Iran and Turkey: A Case Study of the Constitutional Movement In1906 and 1908

This study compares democratization in Iran and Turkey. We show that Iranian and Ottoman society experienced the wave of democratization in 1906 and 1908 respectively. Our argument is that democratization is the result of the combination of three causal conditions, educational development and the agency of political actors and the agency of social actors. Theoretically, educational development only can potentially facilitate the process of democratization, but this is dependent on how political elites respond to it. The strategic choices made by the élites determine the main process of democratization. This study uses comparative historical analysis. Methodologically, the comparative historical analysis focuses on both historically interpretive and causally analytic.The findings indicate that the educational development as a structural resource in combination with the strategic choeces of political and social actors such as negotiation or coalition or the creation of a social movement has led to democratization.