Social Movements and the Change of Social Structures in Asiatic Iran

The Asiatic mode of production was devised by Karl Marx in the mid-nineteen century. Since then, the socio-political changes of Asiatic societies have become the main concern of the orientalists. Marx believed that the only way of changing the relations in such countries is the importation of the elements of capitalism from the other countries. The change due to the external forces has become a focal point of the critics of the Asiatic mode of production and oriental despotism. Social movements which are one the main ways of socio-political changes have been studied by some thinkers like Wittfogel, Ahmad Ashraf, Homayoun Katouzian and John Foran. Generally speaking, there are two theories about this issue: the theory of oriental despotism by Wittfogel in which he rejects the role of social movements in changing the relationships, and the theory of fragile resistance by John Foran in which he argues that the movements are fragile due to their coalition characteristics. The major question of this study is: why have not the social movements led to a change in social structure in Iran?
Using a historical method, the paper is to give evidence for and against both theories in Iranian society. The results demonstrate that many social movements can be observed at the time of the weakness of the despotic powers. However, the fragility of those movements prevents any socio-political changes. This mechanism states why the history of orient, in general, and the history of Iran in particular are static. Based on the findings, it could be said that each theory explains just a part of the fact. Therefore, with the use of the Herbert Bloomer's movement stages, I present a mixed theory to examine the changes of sociopolitical structures in Iranian society.