ABSTRACT
This chapter is an examination of the failure of democracy to prevail in Middle Eastern countries such as Iran, a problem arising out of modern statehood rather than Islam. Ghorashi, in this chapter, adopts the provision of 'public goods' as a means to describe the state's major function. He argues that as an economy develops, this function evolves and results in the democratization of the state. Due to the fact that the modern state in Iran was imposed from above, and oil revenues gave it financial autonomy, it did not follow this 'normal' path.
