ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the causes and the probable extent of the cleavages between society and the state in prerevolutionary and present-day Iran. It focuses on the distress levels of Iran's politically important social groups, including the intelligentsia, clerics, bazaaris, entrepreneurs, modern sectors of the middle class, and the dispossessed. As noted, although widespread dissatisfaction is insufficient to bring about a revolution, it is a necessary precursor to any revolutionary situation. Severely alienated from the Pahlavi regime, the ulama were instrumental in the making of the Iranian revolution. In the case of Iran, Ali Shariati maintained that the nation's cultural identity was intimately bound up with Shia Islam. To the extent that the Islamic Republic is anchored by firmer social roots than prerevolutionary Iran, it is less likely to be overthrown as a result of revolutionary upheaval. Inter- and intraclass divisions are, by definition, inimical to the formation of cross-cutting alliances and therefore diminish the capacity for collective action.
