History, Development and Envelopment (Bazergan, Marx, Ibn-e Khaldoun, North)

This article proposes that “historical approach” and “appropriate methods” are the best defendable and the most serviceable of all tools with which to analyze the problems of development and backwardness. Based on the same proposition it offers a comparative survey of the thoughts of the four listed thinkers for understanding the fundamental problems of national development. The main conclusion of this survey is that all of the four listed thinkers advocated application of historical analysis and material-livelihood of the peoples each presenting the proposition consistent with their environmental, circumstantial and intellectual peculiarities that were applicable within their certain limits. The key findings of those thinkers have then been critically evaluated within the peculiar conditions in Iran. The author concludes that in light of the peculiar conditions in Iran the analytical devices of the fundamentalists are comparatively better capable of explaining development issues in Iran.