Introduction

This chapter examines the rise and fall of the liberal nationalist movement in the second half of the twentieth century. The origin of the Melli movement (liberal nationalist movement) can be traced to the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911. The use of the concepts of liberalism and nationalism in referring to the Melliun (the adherents to the Melli idea) has been criticized by the Melliun themselves. Liberalism in Iran attracted the Melliun more to its political dimension than to its economic philosophy. The heuristic framework provides a three-level approach that includes the internal (internal to the movement), national, and international dimensions (both structural and nonstructural) and their interrelations to explain liberal nationalism in Iran. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book is a descriptive account of the socioeconomic, political, and cultural transformations of Iranian society between the late 1940s and the late 1970s.