Description
Book SynopsisFor decades, political observers and pundits have characterized the Islamic Republic of Iran as an ideologically rigid state on the verge of collapse, exclusively connected to a narrow social base. In this book, the author demonstrates how they are wrong.
Trade Review“Harris literally wrote the book on politics and welfare in Iran.” * Foreign Policy *
“This empirically rich study draws on Harris’ extensive fieldwork in Iran and uses welfare policy as a prism through which to view the country’s transition from the shah’s dictatorship to the now nearly 40-year-old theocracy of the Islamic Republic. . . . If Harris is correct, the Islamic Republic contains the seeds of its own transformation.” -- John Waterbury * Foreign Affairs *
"A Social Revolution acts as a much-needed corrective to a lot of the academic and policy literature on contemporary Iran, which tends to view the country’s political and social geography in binary terms: namely, a top-heavy, ideological, and oppressive state versus a resistant, cosmopolitan society." * The Middle East Journal *
"Kevan Harris has stepped forward with a reasoned and well-researched presentation of the theocracy as a traditional welfare state." * Survival: Global Politics and Strategy *
“A Social Revolution acts as a much-needed corrective to a lot of the academic and policy literature on contemporary Iran." * The Middle East Journal *
"Harris offers a first-rate book on Iran" * CHOICE *
"A Social Revolution shows that the Islamic Republic relied on welfare provision as the main source of state making, and this is a remarkable finding. I contend that this book is a must read for students of welfare studies, the Middle East, and social movements." * American Journal of Sociology *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Note on Transliteration Introduction 1. Can an Oil State Be a Welfare State? 2. Seeing like a King: Welfare Policy as State-Building Strategy in the Pahlavi Monarchy 3. Creating a Martyrs' Welfare State: 1979, War, and the Survival of the Islamic Republic 4. The Revolution Embedded: Rural Transformations and the Demographic Miracle 5. Development and Distinction: Welfare-State Expansion and the Politics of the New Middle Class 6. Lineages of the Iranian Welfare State Conclusion: Development Contradictions through the Lens of Welfare Politics Notes Bibliography Index
