ABSTRACT

The immediate causes of the Iranian revolution of 1978-79 were in themselves distinctively political. The revolution was the result of the structural breakdown of the Pahlavi state on the one hand and the initiatives and manoeuvres of groups opposing the regime on the other. At the same time, the social situation in which such political developments occurred was of overwhelming importance in determining the character and the outcome of the revolution. The main body of this book has been devoted to analysing those causally important social and political developments that resulted in the Iranian revolution. The remaining pages will examine some of the questions regarding the revolution that were not previously raised. While such questions are mostly only hypothetical, they help sharpen our analytical understanding of the revolution. Was the Iranian revolution in any sense inevitable? Could it have had leaders other than the ulema and Ayatollah Khomeini? And, how much linkage has there been between the regime that has emerged after the revolution and the principles that the revolution stood for?