Iran, Islam and Democracy: The Politics of Managing Change

Professor Ali Ansari will discuss the ideas that informed his book on political change in the Islamic Republic, the structure of the new state as it took shape under President Rafsanjani and the struggles to define it in the decades that followed, looking in particular at how both Marxian and Weberian concepts of the state and socio-economic structures can help us better understand the nature of the Islamic Republic.

Ali Ansari is Professor of Iranian History and Founding Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St. Andrews; Senior Associate Fellow, Royal United Services Institute. In 2016 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2018 he was elected Honorary Vice President of the British Institute for Persian Studies. His publications include: Modern Iran Since 1797 (3rd updated edition, Taylor & Francis, 2019); Iran, Islam & Democracy: The Politics of Managing Change (3rd updated edition, Gingko, 2019); Iran: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2014); The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran (CUP, 2012); Iran Under Ahmadinejad (Adelphi Paper, IISS, January 2008); and Confronting Iran: The Failure of U.S. Policy and the Roots of Mistrust (Hurst, 2006). He is also Editor of the Cambridge History of Iran (Vol 8., The Islamic Republic).

https://iranian-studies.stanford.edu/events/iran-islam-and-democracy-politics-managing-change