Revolution and its Discontents
Political Thought and Reform in Iran

With a focus on the political elite, Sadeghi-Boroujerdi analysis the intellectual and political trajectory of post-revolutionary Iranian reformism.

Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi (Author)

9781108445061, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 18 June 2020

455 pages, 1 table
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.65 kg

'Sadeghi-Boroujerdi's willingness to astutely and clearly address the limitations of reformist thought in Iran, which are often downplayed or even avoided, is one of the book's greatest strengths. Since he convincingly manages to situate these debates and their inspirations firmly within the context of post-Cold War liberalism, Revolution and Its Discontents should be particularly praised for transcending the all too insular conventional discussions of Iranian political thought.' Simon Wolfgang Fuchs, Political Theology

The death of the Islamic Republic's revolutionary patriarch, Ayatollah Khomeini, the bitter denouement of the Iran-Iraq War, and the marginalisation of leading factions within the political elite, in tandem with the end of the Cold War, harboured immense intellectual and political repercussions for the Iranian state and society. It was these events which created the conditions for the emergence of Iran's post-revolutionary reform movement, as its intellectuals and political leaders sought to re-evaluate the foundations of the Islamic state's political legitimacy and religious authority. In this monograph, Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, examines the rise and evolution of reformist political thought in Iran and analyses the complex network of publications, study circles, and think-tanks that encompassed a range of prominent politicians and intellectuals in the 1990s. In his meticulous account of the relationships between the post-revolutionary political class and intelligentsia, he explores a panoply of political and ideological issues still vital to understanding Iran's revolutionary state, such as the ruling political theology of the 'Guardianship of the Jurist', the political elite's engagement with questions of Islamic statehood, democracy and constitutionalism, and their critiques of revolutionary agency and social transformation.

Introduction
1. Religious intellectuals, reform and the struggle for hegemony
2. Constructing Behesht-e Jahan: Islam, the clergy and the state
3. Political genealogies of reform: the rowshanfekran-e dini and the Islamic left
4. Revolution and its discontents: ideology and the death of utopia
5. Free faith, democratic governance and the 'official reading' of religion
6. Khatami, the 2nd of Khordad front and the pedagogics of pluralism
7. Sa'id Hajjariyan and reformist strategy: sovereign disenchantment and the politics of participation
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political ideologies [JPF], Islam [HRH], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1], Asian history [HBJF]