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[PAST EVENT] Roots of the Crisis: State, Capital & Labor in Iran, Professor Peyman Jafari
Access & Features
- Open to the public
Mass protests in Iran – from the Green Movement in 2009 to the Woman, Life, Freedom revolt in 2022 – are manifestations of a crisis with multiple dimensions: political, social, cultural, and economic. This talk argues that a political economy approach, which is often missing from public and academic discussions, has the potential to reveal the deeper roots of this multifaceted crisis in terms of its history, as well as its domestic and international interconnections. More specifically, the talk argues that the post-revolutionary state that emerged after the 1979 revolution in Iran was underpinned by a populist class coalition and social contract that consolidated during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, but which have unraveled since the 1990s due to the introduction of market reforms and socio-cultural changes. While the political elites have initiated different attempts to address the resulting crises, they have failed because of both domestic and international conditions.
Sponsored by: International Relations Program
Contact
Heather Scully, Department of Government