ABSTRACT
Social scientists have long been engaged in an ongoing debate over the concept of revolution, its causes, and its consequences. The Iranian revolution has added great stimuli to this debate by challenging some of the main premisses on which most theories of revolution are based. At the same time, it has validated some other premisses of the existing theories, although in all instances this validation has been limited and has not been inclusive of an entire theoretical framework. The Iranian revolution has, in essence, called forward the necessity of re-evaluating existing explanations for why revolutions take place. Such a reevaluation has yet to occur in a systematic and in-depth manner. Nevertheless, the Iranian revolution has prompted at least one expert on the study of revolutions to alter some of her original arguments.1 This chapter will examine the applicability of some of the prominent theories of revolution to the Iranian example. Based primarily on the Iranian model, an effort will also be made to try to identify the main areas where future scholarship on revolutions needs to place greater emphasis.
