The Causes of Coming into Power of Khatami (Reform Government 1997/1376) on the Basis of Samuel Huntington’s Theory of Uneven Developmen

Subject Areas :

Sadegh Zibakalam ¹ , Davood Afshar ² , Abdollah Aslanzadeh ³

1 - استاد گروه علوم سیاسی دانشکده حقوق و علوم سیاسی دانشگاه تهران [e-mail]
2 - کارشناس ارشد علوم سیاسی/ مطالعات ایران دانشکده حقوق و علوم سیاسی دانشگاه تهران [e-mail]
3 - کارشناس ارشد علوم سیاسی/ مطالعات ایران دانشکده حقوق و علوم سیاسی دانشگاه تهران ) )Aslanzadeh1386@ gmail.com

Received: 2010-04-04 Accepted : 2010-07-01 Published : 2009-10-01

Keywords: Economic Development, political participation, Reconstruction government, uneven development theory of Samuel Huntington, social mobility,

Abstract :

The main question which the present article discusses is what were the cause and ground of coming to power of Syed Mohammad Khatami (Reform government) in second Khordad 1376/1997? The article tries to base its argument on the theory of “uneven development” of Samuel Huntington. A theory which believes that once the political institution lag behind the social and economic transformation this phenomenon leads to creation of new foundation for political association and formation of new political institutions. The underlying hypothesis is that the uneven development of Hashemi period (Reconstruction period) was the cause of Khatami coming into power. In fact due to social and class mobility along with economic development and consequently the growth of new middle class which happened during this period new expectations and demands were created which were mainly participation in the country’s affairs and determining their political future. But during this period no tangible effort were made to fulfill these demands for political development. In this background the slogans of Khatami which were based on the above said demands led to this fact that a large section of voters cast their votes in favour of Khatami and this culminated to his victory in the seventh presidential elections.