Mobilization of Resources: The Political Culture and the Issue of Continuity of Social Movements in Iran: The Case Study of Oil Movement

Social movements in the Iranian contemporary history were generally doomed to failure prior to the Islamic revolution. Oil nationalization is one of these futile movements. While on Tir 30th , 1331 a large mass of social forces were mobilized, one year later, on Mordad 28th coup d’ etat, such a mobilization did not take place and it was how the oil movement declined without any serious public resistance. In this article, relying on the concept of organization in the theory of mobilization of resources proposed by Charles Tilly , we try to explain the reasons why such a procedure took place. In the same vein, first, while referring to historical resources, it is explicated that this national movement suffered from disorganization; the causes of which will then be surveyed. According to the findings of this study, one of the main discovered reasons was loss of proper ethics and political culture and lack of collective cooperation. In fact, the cycle of ‘’autocracy, distrust, and individualism’’ results in a culture which makes organizational acts inoperative or even impossible in turn. Consequently, by the time favorable political culture is missing, the success of social movements could not be attained and movements like oil movement were doomed even when foreign pressures were ineffective.