Fall/Winter Timetable

POL2392Y1Y L5101

Undergraduate Course Code: POL492Y1Y L5101

Topics in Comparative Politics II

Politics in Modern and Contemporary Iran

Themes

This course will provide students with an opportunity to explore politics in modern and contemporary Iran, as well as to address open questions in the relationship between the state and civil society, causes of regime change during the Pahlavi era and the rise of Islamic theocracy in Iran. The course has three interrelated goals: 1) making students familiar with the basic aspects of modern Iranian history, 2) providing them with analytical tools and knowledge for an in-depth understanding of the contemporary politics in Iran, and 3) generating theoretical insight into the question of how modern politics have been perceived and practiced in Iran from the late nineteenth century to the present. Students will learn about Iran’s encounter with modernity, Iranian intellectual trends, the causes and consequences of the 1979 revolution, and the nature of the post-revolutionary political system.

Texts

Ramin Jahanbegloo (ed.), Iran: Between Tradition and Modernity (Lanham, Lexington Books, 2004); Nikki Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003).