ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the issues and debates through the prism of concept of dependent development. It analyzes the class structure empirically and in modes of production terms, while the next will document the world-systemic constraints placed on Iran's growth—the two sections taken together indicate the parameters of a transitional phase of dependent development by exploring its internal and external possibilities and limits. Despite the problem of finding wholly reliable data, there yet exist enough good historiographic materials for the author purpose, namely, the mapping of Iranian class structure in the interwar period. The Iranian state assumed extensive political and economic powers during the reign of Reza Shah by comparison with the dismal standards of the Qajar dynasty. Peasant society was largely unaffected, while the tribes were brutally and forcibly made to settle. Reza Shah and his government made various attempts to establish Iran's independence in the world-system of the 1930s.
