Explaining the process of the Islamic Revolution Victory based on Manuel Castells’ Network Power Model

The process of the Islamic Revolution victory has been explained and interpreted based on different sociological approaches and views, and its causes and reasons of emergence have been discussed from various points of views. The approach employed in the present study is to explore the Islamic Revolution based on Castells’ network theory of power. According to this model, power is made up of networks linked together by means of switchers forming an intertwining network of power. In the opposite frontier, social activists form an anti-power network that helps the collapse of the government if it infiltrates the power network and cut the power links. In the present article, we will explain how the anti-power networks during the Islamic Revolution were linked together through mosques, religious bodies, and universities headed by Imam Khomeini as a switcher and how they managed to weaken the power network of Pahlavi regime including army, capitalist who support the regime, Massive state bureaucracy and support of foreign powers and eventually overthrow it. In this article, considering the historical documents, this hypotheses is being proved that the links between anti-power networks including clergy’s network and Islamic seminary, traditional middle class and bazaar, new middle class and enlightened activists and labor network, beside crisis such as economic problems which causes the separation of capitalist network and Pahlavi regime, political crisis caused by the lack of dealing with expectations of new middle class and enlightened and Shah’s thought of lack of support of foreign powers, gradually weakened the regime and provided the needs of the collapse of regime as Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (as the switcher of power networks) left the country.