حمیدرضا رحمانی زاده دهکردی

Starting October 2018, Twitter removed thousands of users attributed to Iran, Russia, China, Venezuela, Bangladesh, Catalonia, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Spain. In its last effort, on February 2021 Twitter released data from 238 deleted users attributed to Iran, while the data was collected on December 2020. The reason behind this deletion was claimed as Iran's attempts at affecting the 2020 US Presidential Elections.This article will review the mechanical and human methods used for creation and distribution of fake news and also the mechanical methods for recognizing such content. Then the data from 238 removed users attributed to Iran up to December 2020 was first processed using scripts written with Python and finally analyzed for Social Network Analysis using the Kumu visualization tool. Nodes and edges show that there is in fact strong relations within removed users. Analysis of user langauges and profile bios showed that kost of the removed users claimed to not be from Iran and some had political tweets regarding the US Presidential Elections.

Political decisions usually affect a large number of people but the point is to what extent these decisions are justified and verified, and to what extent, they have gone through the correct decision-making mechanisms. The negative consequences of some of these decisions have been motivating many researchers to figure out where the problem comes from. However, the problem is that most of these researchers have seen them in a suspended, abstract, and isolated way. The purpose of this article is, first of all, to provide criteria for evaluating these decisions, and in the next step, to identify the most important challenges of the government's political decision-making. In the third step, it tries to provide examples of these challenges with regard to the provided indicators, and then to show the relationship which they are related to the issue of "accountability" and their ultimate relationship with the gap between the government - the nation, and the weakness of the civil society. The research method in this article is descriptive-analytical and gathering data is based on documents, finally, statistical samples have been used to examine the process of several important political decisions. The specific finding of this article is that political decision-making is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon whose transparency, verification, and justification are closely related to the question of accountability and finally democratic mechanisms, and the existence of strong civil forces and political parties.

The relation of religion with the notion of rationality has been a concern for the faithful religionists. The field of religious studies faces new questions in this regard. Islamic thinkers have not been the exception and the acquaintance of Muslims with the requirements of the new age is the beginning of questions regarding the relationship between them, because in the experience of western human, the confrontation with such a problem can be found. Using the patterns of answering this question can blur the hidden aspects of the relationship between them. One model is the response that Thomas Aquinas gave to the relationship between reason and religion. In this research, based on Springer´s method, which is a method of understanding political theory, we will look at this issue in Aquinas´s thought. The question is: " how Aquinas addresses the relationship between wisdom and religion, as well as the ideal reconstructed image to offer". To answer, various dimensions of Aquinas´ political thought have been analyzed. The research hypothesis is as follows: The solution to the conflict between wisdom and religion in the public domain, in Aquinas´ perspective is in the aggregate between these two epistemic areas and the widespread collaboration among its custodians.

There are various approaches to study the modern state in Iran including the Marxist approach, Patrimonial approach and the Oriental despotism approach. These approaches, however, often consider the modern state as a full-blown despotism and Reza Shah as an "oriental despot" or an autocrat who imposed his will upon the society. The critics of Reza Shah claim that he was a dictator: He secularized laws, forced women to do away with the veil, and introduced Western-style dress for men. They state that during his time, there was hardly any political life in the form of opposition. The press was muzzled; the parliament rubber-stamped the king’s decisions, and some of his political rivals and confidantes were imprisoned, some eliminated. Religious protests were put down robustly, and Reza Shah was ruthless with tribal rebellions. Indeed, his style was very brusque. This study aims to show how a seemingly absolute and autocrat modern state, Reza Shah’s State, could be limited by a number of factors including the existence of strong social forces such as tribes, the state’s incapability to exert absolute force, and the intervention of foreign powers. In other words, there have been some social and economic contexts influencing the modern state. In this situation, the Shah could be forced to make a decision and take an action different from his own will. To prove this claim, this study gives some evidence from various sources, including foreign state documents, books, memories, diaries of foreign financial advisers such as Dr. Millspaugh, eyewitnesses who registered their observations etc.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The structural approach is adapted to justify the modern state. In other words, it is shown that to understand the concrete reality of The Modern State, one should refer to the context (social forces, geographic situation, and intervention of foreign forces) and, moreover, one should refer to the state and its ability/inability to exerting absolute force in its territory.
Findings: Our thesis can be summed up by one typical statement: Social, economic, and demographic situations (including social forces and geographically large countries with dispersed population), that is what is called as a context and some characteristics of the Modern State (including state inability to exert absolute force on the country), prevent the state from falling into full-blown despotism. The study has summarized the other approaches and compared them to the approach of the present paper for highlighting the different dimensions of this approach.
Originality/Value: It is the researcher’s belief that this study throws a new light to the debates on Reza Shah’s state as the first modern state in Iran. The critics of this state assert that it was a full blown despotic state, and the defenders consider it as a reformer-dictator state that laid the foundation of modern Iran and transformed the chaotic and desperate conditions of the time. This study shows that, in spite of the fact that there were some suppressions, some structural impediments prevented the Shah to act on his own absolute will.

This article aims to analyze Siyahatnameh-ye EbrahimBeyk; an influential book on Iranian constitutional revolution as a medium for awakening people in Ghajarera. Furthermore, we want to know how the political and social & cultural situations of Ghajar were represented in the book. We use thematic analysis, a qualitative analytical method for identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns (themes) within data, to examine the themes and concepts of the text. In the first step, we identify and Generate Initial Codes. After creating and developing the codes, we search and produce meaningful themes. According to the themes, finally, we try to answer the research questions. Our main question is how the book represents the political and social &cultural conditions, we show it has had four functions: to describe the status quo, to illustrate the flaws of status quo, to present some solutions to overcome them and to depict an ideal situation. The second question is, how the content of the book can intrigue people for revolutionary activity. Introducing new concepts such as “law”, “progress”,“civildisobedience” and so on and also comparing the situation in Iran with the other developed countries, are two important themes in Siyahatnameh that both can answer the last question.

One way to learn how to write an academic article is by analyzing some good and effective articles and taking lessons from them. In this way, I have chosen two articles from two different political positions, i.e. “The End of History” by Francis Fukuyama from the Right and “Modernity, Unfinished/Incomplete Project” by Jürgen Habermas from the Left. The prime purpose of this paper is to provide a translation and summary of Fukuyama’s article and the second objective is to analyze the text for extracting some theses, assumptions, research questions , etc. and finally is to compare these lessons with those that I have learned from analyzing the Habermas’s article (that I have published in a philosophical academic journal “Hekmat Va Falsafeh”). The author shows how these experiences can provide some criteria for writing academic articles and evaluating them. As we see in this paper, identifying a radical thesis, supporting it with convincing evidence and reasons and making a contribution to the body of knowledge, is the most characteristic feature of a good and academic article. Furthermore, we show that how two articles can be used as interdisciplinary methods for developing themes and ideas in a discourse.

The relationship between cyberspace and democracy has been one of the most controversial issues during the last two decades. The main question particularly lies in the fact whether cyberspace can restrict the authoritarian state. The study aims, in the first step, to examine the arguments for and against some basic concepts which are related to the question of the study and those debates including “virtual civil society”, “virtual public sphere”, “state accountability” and “creating some spaces for resistance”. Then, Non-Democratic Sides of Cyberspace were examined and it was revealed that they are not related to cyberspace per se. These features arise from political, social and economic structures; but cyberspace can represent them, at the best. In other words, internet should be looked at as a tool or a medium, not as a goal per se.
Design/Methodology/Approach: In this article, the main arguments for and against the democratic sides of cyberspace were examined and some evidence was given for each. Then, it was indicated that all of them are a part of truth. To understand the concrete reality on cyberspace we should refer to context (social, economic structures) which is known as structural approach.
Findings: Our thesis can be summed up by one typical statement: "structures and actions determine the political and social system and internet and cyberspace can only act as a catalyst". No evidence could be found to show us that activity in cyberspace can make a great change in political, social relations and structures, on the contrary, there is clear-cut evidence that the state and social, economic institutions, have used this tool in promoting and achieving their goals.
Originality/Value: The two different approaches toward cyberspace and its impact on promoting democracy process are not new. Our contribution to this process, in the first step, is to categorize and analyze them based on their reasons and evidence and more importantly, to show that these two approaches are Two sides of the same coin. To understand the democracy process and nature of the state, we should refer to the concrete context including social and economic structures and not to virtual tools.

“Modernity; unfinished project” has been one of the most effective articles of the world during the recent three decades and it has been the source of controversis in many different fields of though. But the main question is: Why this paper is so important? And what lessons can be learned from it for writing of scientific articles? Although، the article contains many thought-provoking and informative notes but its prose is in some places، concise، ornate and difficult. It is translated about a decade ago into Persian، and apparently has been done quickly and with little accuracy. Perhaps that is why it needs serious revision with the emergence of many Habermas'' sociological and philosophical backgrounds. Therefore، the first purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual abstract and as much as possible، an accurate and faithful summary of article using two English translations and (when necessary) referring to the original German article. Then، it showes that why this article is important technically by analyzing and abstraction of “Questions”، “ideas”، “theorems” and “assumptions” and how it can provide Criteria for effective، scientific and philosophical writing.