kavous seyed

Ethnic diversity is a universal phenomenon. Each country designs policy for managing ethnic diversity on the basis of its objectives and approaches on the one hand, and the particular mode of ethnic diversity in that country on the other hand. Islamic Republic of Iran, as a country with a long-standing ethnic diversity, has tried to manage this diversity on the basis of the country's particular view of ethnic diversity and its unique mode of ethnic composition. While reviewing and critiquing some approaches to ethnic management, the authors have attempted to extract visions and objectives of handling ethnic issues in Iran and to propose policies for managing ethnic diversity based on the Islamic Republic of Iran's opportunity-based approach to ethnic diversity and the directives of the leaders of the revolution and the Constitutional and other legal documents of the Republic. The methodology used in this paper is a combination of existing data and document study research, elite panels, expert interviews along with drawing on the author's experiences.

There are limited empirical studies on the reasons for and causes of Iranian voter's participation in the elections, on the why and how of fluctuations in turnout, and on the impact of individual and social variables on voting behavior. The Eleventh Presidential Elections in Iran and the surprise victory of Mr. Rouhani prompted us to undertake a study to contribute to the existing research and to a better understanding of the voter's reasons and criteria for voting. Our main objective in this study was to understand voter's motivations and reasons for taking part in the elections and choosing to vote for a particular candidate. To achieve this, we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews in the city of Khoy. Having analyzed the data, we decided that we could offer a reasonable explanation for voter's behavior by expanding our rational choice model to incorporate essential insights from 'framing' theory. Our findings indicate that citizens of Khoy are in general apolitical, conservative and traditionally religious. They cast their votes on rational grounds, but their rational choices are made within 'frame's shaped by the particular circumstances and persuasion discourses of the election time.

Utilizing morphological analysis method in the context of futures studies, a model for identifying various types of Islamism that are possible to be constructed in future is introduced. Morphological analysis is method and a tool that, by focusing on various classificatory criteria, enables us to develop all possible scenarios for a phenomenon. In this article we treat Islamism as a social movement that can emerge in a variety of types based on different theoretical foundations and various ways of constructing group identities. In order to identify characteristics and criteria that set various types of Islamism, some the existing typologies are introduced and assessed. Because of heavy reliance on assumptions, concepts and categories that are alien to the Islamic world, many of the existing typologies miss the picture and do not help us to gain a better and deeper understanding of various streaks of Islamism. Taking a critical stance vis-à-vis the underlying assumptions of the existing typologies, we try to present a model that encompasses a range of criteria that differentiate various types of Islamism that can possibly emerge in future.