Research Proposal on "Authoritarian Modernization"

Research Proposal 15 pages (5553 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Authoritarian Modernization

The reforms undertaken in Iran and Turkey by Reza Shah Pahlavi and Kemal Ataturk respectively, during the early half of the previous century, are two classical cases of authoritarian modernization in the study of political science. Comparisons have frequently been drawn between the two regimes in spite of significant differences existing between the Safavid or Qajar empires and the Ottoman Empire. However, both the regimes acted as catalysts in the transformation of outdated and archaic empires to modern republics trying to keep pace with the progressive western world.

Historical Background

Reza Shah Pahlavi

Reza Shah Pahlavi was the founder and first monarch of the Pahlavi dynasty. Reza Shah Pahlavi was born as Reza Khan in 1878 in a small village called Alasht located in the Savad Kouh region in the Caspian district of Mazandaran. Reza Khan's father, Abbas Ali as well as his grandfather, Morad Ali Khan had served in the provincial military regiment. Abbas Ali died while Reza Khan was still an infant and his mother left Alasht and settled in Teheran at the behest of her youngest brother. Their financial condition was not in a good state and when Reza Khan was around fifteen years old, he was advised by his uncle to join the Persian Cossack Brigade which was commanded by Russian officers. Reza Khan was a tall, strong and sensitive young man. He was highly courageous and took part in various battles in the campaign against Salar al Dowleh. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a First Lieutenant and then Captain by 1912, as a result of his courage and ability in handling machine guns. Soon his reputation as a brave and fearless soldier combined with his native intelligence earned him praises from his commanders who often selected him for quelling tribal revolts.

Reza Khan's professionalism, ambition and military reputation served him well and he was most probably promoted to the rank of Colonel by 1915 and became a Brigadier General by 1918. Reza Khan probably played a major role in the ousting of the commander of the Cossack Division in 1918. It is believed that all through this period, Reza Khan was disturbed by the fact that they were placed under the command of Russian Cossack officers. As his popularity and military reputation grew, his relation with his commanding officers deteriorated. Finally, in 1920, Reza led the Persian troops in removing the Russian officers and he himself took charge of the entire brigade. Reza Khan, along with Sayyed Tabatabai overthrew the Teheran government in 1921 and took charge as the commander in chief of the armed forces as well as appointed himself as the minister of war. After falling out with Tabatabai, Reza Khan took over as Prime Minister. During the period from 1921 to 1925, he subdued many tribal uprisings, created a strong and modern army, and ushered in a period of peace and security which had not been witnesses in the country for the last hundred years. By this time, the monarch of Persia, Ahmad Shah of the Qajar dynasty had become politically weak and totally eclipsed by the more popular Reza Khan. When Ahmad Shah left the country, the Majlis declared the removal of the absent king and declared Reza Khan as the king or "Shahenshah" of Persia.

As the Shah of Iran, Reza Shah enjoyed widespread popularity at the beginning of his rule. He adopted the name "Pahlavi" adapted from "pahlavan" meaning champion. Profoundly influenced by the reforms initiated by Kemal Ataturk in Turkey, Reza Shah also embarked on a series of radical reforms to convert Iran into a secular, modernized country. He changed the name of the country from Persia to Iran, a name by which it was known in the olden times. When Reza came to power, a majority of his people was illiterate, transport infrastructure was abysmal and industry was stagnant. He initiated far-reaching reforms for expanding foreign trade, modernizing infrastructures, reforming the education system and uplifting the status of women.

In the foreign affair sector, he established an independent customs, abolished the capitulation system, ended the prerogative of the British Bank to bring out currency notes, and engineered a new oil deal with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. His main focus was on internal reforms which he carried out with devoted fervor. He took over the telegraph services from British management, created a wireless service, and built 20,000 kilometers of roadways. The building of the Trans-Persian Railway was undoubtedly one of his most grand and impressive projects. This railroad, which was 1400 km long and constructed without any foreign aid, connected Teheran with the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea passing through formidable terrain. He established and encouraged domestic production of consumer goods in state-owned factories. He set up the National Bank of Iran and limited the freedom of merchants by setting up trade monopolies.

Reza Shah encouraged westernization of education and attire. In 1934, he set up the University of Teheran and founded the Persian Academy whose chief function was to remove borrowed foreign words including Arabic ones from the Persian language. He sought to reduce the prestige and influence of Islamic religion as well as that of the clergy on public life. Many religious leaders were jailed or exiled. Islamic education was stopped and so were religious processions. People were ordered to adopt Western attire and women were asked to get rid of the veil. Reza Shah made widespread use of the armed forces to implement his rules in a country weighed down with superstition, vested interests and illiteracy. However, using the army to subdue its own people made tyrants out of many of its officers which were resented by a large cross-section of the people.

Reza Shah resented the idea of seeking help either from Russia or Britain, Iran's historical overlords, and took great pains to give government contracts to countries other than these two. Thus, when the Second World War started, a large number of German technicians were working on numerous projects in the country. When the British government asked for these German workers to be forced out of the country and the Trans-Iranian Railways be made available for supplies to be sent to the Allied troops, Reza Shah refused to cooperate and forced the country to maintain its neutrality that it had declared at the outbreak of the war. As a result, Russian and British forces moved into the country and forced the abdication of Reza Shah. Reza Shah's wish to immigrate to Canada was rejected and was moved to Mauritius and later to South Africa where he finally met his end in 1944.

The drastic reforms brought into the Iranian society by Reza Shah definitely elevated the status of Iran from an old empire to a new progressive state. The Pahlavi regime constantly reiterated its commitment to modernism, however superficial they may be. The dubbing of Reza Shah as the "founder of modern Iran" was another of the state's claim to legitimizing its supposed vow towards modernization. However, these reforms were simply a carry-over of the objectives of the Constitutional Revolution of 1905. The initial success of the reforms, especially the attempts to secularize the country, could also be attributed to the already declining power base of the Islamic clergy. Moreover, religion had ceased to provide the sole platform for the legitimization of political opposition. Previous reforms had paved the way for the emergence of intellectual circles, professional associations, socio-political journals, and numerous secular political journals which provided means for political involvement.

Reza Shah had realized that his attempts to bolster national consciousness required more than glorifying the pre-Islamic splendors of Iran's past. This led to his policy of etatisme in the economic field which laid stress on industrialization. This, of course, could not lead to the growth of a politically forceful group of private entrepreneurs or create free-market capitalism. However, it did give better investment opportunities to private entrepreneurs because of Reza Shah's various economic reforms including banking system reforms, industrialization drive, restrictions on tribal movements, and the gradual inclusion of Iran into the capitalist market of the world. Nevertheless, the utilization of the military for asserting its hold on the country was a delegitimizing factor of the Reza Shah regime. Many would assess this regime as a period of intellectual repression and transitory. Nevertheless, the iron hand with which the rapid modernizing reforms were carried out undoubtedly laid the basis for "secular state machinery" and helped in the emergence of a hitherto nonexistent group of "political-intellectual elite."

Reza Shah was undoubtedly one of the architects of modern Iran but his vision was an extension of the vision of earlier Iranian reformers and an inspiration from the neighboring successes achieved at the creation of secular modern states by Turkey under the guidance of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

It may be true that his notions of modernization were at a superficial level, but the fact remains that his style of authoritarian modernization forced his country to feel the inevitability… READ MORE

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