An Analysis of Islamic Revolution of Iran’s Social Explanations

With respect to the significance of the Islamic Revolution of Iran and its unexpected occurrence, various theories have been presented on this revolution. Given the multiplicity of these theories, this paper intends to present a typology of theories of revolution before identifying social variables and social explanations of a revolution to end up with introducing and studying social explanations of the Islamic Revolution of Iran. Given the above, the paper intends to find answers to the following questions: 1- What is social explanation? 2- What are the social explanations for a revolution and those of the Islamic Revolution of Iran? This paper has been developed through a documentary method with library and historical studies. Based on findings of this study, a social explanation is a kind of explanation based on social variables. In case of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, social explanations by such authors and thinkers as John Foran, Ervand Abrahamian, Theda Skocpol, Farideh Farahi, Ahmad Ashraf, Homayoun Katouzian, Abolfazl Delavari and Ahmad Golmohammadi have been introduced as social explanations of the Islamic Revolution of Iran. The most important social variables that social explanations of the Islamic Revolution of Iran put forward for clarification of the Islamic Revolution are the following: role of social classes and different walks of life in the revolution; class coalition; emergence of new classes and walks of life, particularly middle class and educated class; status of traditional classes and walks of life; social structure (mass-civil and traditional-modern-transient); social identity; population growth, a change in population fabric and social status of the government and the dissent.