The Middle Class and its Role in the Political Development of Iran In the Second Pahlavi Era

Political development is one of the branches of development with the goal of progress, industrialization, elimination of poverty, elimination of dependence, structural changes and reforms in all sectors of society, and the transition from the unfavorable state of the past to better conditions. Political development is related to the position and role of the middle class in society. Because the middle class position is a structural position tied to political power. The identity of this class requires the presence of the ruling class and the lower class of society. In a division, this class is divided into a traditional one, which is the traditional middle class, the petty bourgeoisie, the merchants and the peasant landowners, while the new middle class includes the wage-laborers, the technocrats, and the educated classes of society. It should be. In the second Pahlavi period, despite all the pressures, the middle class, in particular the traditional middle class of the clergy and the market, actively participated in the struggle against the government and the modernization and secularization of the Shah. In contrast to religious beliefs and national and religious traditions, the ruling class stood against it. On the one hand, the contradiction between the state and the nation, which was the product of the introduction of modernity to Iran, was the main concern of the new middle class, especially the intellectual circle.