State-Nation in Iran: A Political-Philosophical Approach

The development of globalization and its widespread expansion throughout the world has influenced Iranian society and politics reinforcing various international as well as national crises. In such a situation. We require a new theory addressing this issue and establishing a satisfactory solution to these emerging problems. On the other hand, the lack of a consensual account of the nation-state in Iran led to various challenges in our society and political situation. In the absence of a comprehensive theory of national identity, other elements have sometimes overshadowed the key concept of the nation-state, for instance, traditional and pre-modern understanding of Iranian nationality and citizenship. On the other hand, some Western political ideologies and theories that emphasize elements such as ethnicity, language, race, and the like, or the ideologies of “identity politics,” has caused in the minds and language of some Iranian elites and Political activists concepts and concerns that would lead to the weakening of integration based on the nation-state. This article aims to critically engage with these accounts by defending the national identity in Iran and offering a conception of the nation based on new theories in political philosophy based on social imagination, which emphasizes the importance of the nation-state as the construction of a collective imagination or social imaginary.