Relationship between Tax Revenues and the Degree of Society's Independence from the State (with Emphasis on the Second Pahlavi Period and the Islamic Republic of Iran)

The present study examines the relationship between tax revenues and the degree of society’s independence from the state. The precondition for a strong civil society and, consequently, the growth of the power and independence of society’s independence from the state is a democratic state that maintains law and order. Although studies have been conducted on the relationship between state and society and the negative impact of oil revenues and God-given resources in the Middle East in general, the purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between tax revenues and society's independence from the state. In this research, an attempt has been made to investigate the nature of the rentier state in Iran (second Pahlavi) as well as the attempt to increase non-oil revenues (after the 1979 revolution), and its relationship with the power and independence of society from the state in a historical process. The question in this article is what is the relationship between tax revenues and the degree of society's independence from the government? A descriptive-analytical method is used to test the hypothesis that the state, as the party responsible for collecting society’s tax revenues, organizes public claims, but this equation was different between the rentier state of the second Pahlavi and after the 1979 revolution despite the dependence on God-given revenues. Finally, the findings suggest that the Iranian state functionally deviated with the entrance of an important element called oil, and instead of overseeing private-market interactions as an arbiter, it became a powerful economic player.