Bazaar and State in Iran: The Politics of the Tehran Marketplace (Cambridge Middle East Studies) [Paperback]

Arang Keshavarzian (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521103304 | ISBN-13: 978-0521103305 | Publication Date: March 19, 2009 | Edition: Reissue

The Tehran Bazaar has always been central to the Iranian economy and indeed, to the Iranian urban experience. Arang Keshavarzian's fascinating book compares the economics and politics of the marketplace under the Pahlavis, who sought to undermine it in the drive for modernisation and under the subsequent revolutionary regime, which came to power with a mandate to preserve the bazaar as an 'Islamic' institution. The outcomes of their respective policies were completely at odds with their intentions. Despite the Shah's hostile approach, the bazaar flourished under his rule and maintained its organisational autonomy to such an extent that it played an integral role in the Islamic revolution. Conversely, the Islamic Republic implemented policies that unwittingly transformed the ways in which the bazaar operated, thus undermining its capacity for political mobilisation. Arang Keshavarizian's book affords unusual insights into the politics, economics and society of Iran across four decades.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Keshavarzian casts his study within an intelligent and provocative theoretical framework, while providing the reader with rich empirical detail...He makes new contributions to the study of the Tehran bazaar" - Ervand Abrahamian, Department of History, Baruch College

"...no other work comes close to Keshavarzian's in its systematic treatment of the subject...it is likely to broaden the discourse on Iranian politics in the existing academic literature." - Massoud Karshenas, Department of Economics, SOAS, University of London

"...a treasure of information, fine analyses, and comparisons...the fruit of dense and extensive anthropological field research. ... should be read not only by Iran specialists, but by anybody interested in economic institutions in Islamic countries or in the link between economic, social, and cultural practices." - Fariba Adelkhah, Iranian Studies

"Highly recommended." - Choice

"These richly detailed case studies are instructive and interesting, and give the book an original flavor.... The book is also certainly a useful historical reference for tracing the Bazaar's continuous transfiguration over time." - The Developing Economies (Japan)

"Keshavarzian shows how the bazaar exercised its political and economic influence under the shah. He then lays out the paradox that the revolution in which the bazaar was so central brought in a government that has systematically weakened the bazaar to the point that the bazaar is no longer a significant political player. His style is at times a bit dense, but Keshavarzian is no obscurantist academic: He provides lots of colorful details." - Foreign Policy

Book Description

Arang Keshavarzian's fascinating book compares the economics and politics of the marketplace under the Pahlavis, who sought to undermine it in the drive for modernisation and under the subsequent revolutionary regime which came to power with a mandate to preserve the bazaar as an 'Islamic' institution.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Reissue edition (March 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521103304
• ISBN-13: 978-0521103305
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #708,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bazaars Made the Revolution and the Revolution Killed Them, July 29, 2008

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Jazz It Up Baby - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bazaar and State in Iran: The Politics of the Tehran Marketplace (Cambridge Middle East Studies) (Hardcover)

At the time of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, as Patrick Clawson of the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy tells us, two-thirds of Iran's wholesale trade and at least 30 percent of imports were transacted through Tehran's bazaar merchants. The merchandise did not necessarily physically pass through the bazaar, but the bazaaris controlled the trade. The bazaar was the national commercial emporium for the import of almost all consumer goods and for many intermediate goods used as inputs in manufacturing. The bazaar was also an important public forum; the exchange of information that took place as part of the hustle and bustle of trade was arguably the most important conduit for news for the key opinion-shapers in society. And the bazaar merchants were a powerhouse in Iranian politics through their financial and political support for traditional clerics. It is little exaggeration to say that the bazaar made the revolution.

Based on many interviews in the bazaar as well as extensive research in original sources, Keshavarzian, assistant professor of government at Connecticut College, documents how the power of the pre-revolution bazaar was a product of the shah's modernizing and development approach that, paradoxically, had been intended to undercut the bazaar. The state's new, formal structures allowed little room for the social networks and personal contacts that defined bazaar culture; since such interpersonal relations were central to how Iranians approached business, the bazaar's power was magnified.

To continue the paradox, today the Islamic Revolution has undercut the strength of the bazaar despite being sympathetic to bazaar merchants. Every aspect of life under the Islamic Republic is based on individual-level patronage, not on formal structures. The bazaar cannot compete in influence with the network of social relations formed through ties to influential clerics and to revolutionary institutions, such as the foundations that control much of the Islamic Republic's economy. Meanwhile, patronage via the revolutionary elite has exposed and inflamed internal divisions in the bazaar, undercutting group solidarity.

As a result, the Islamic Republic has--without at all intending to do so--succeeded at forcing the transformation the shah desired but could not accomplish. Today the modernization of the bazaar has been accomplished through the imposition of contemporary transaction methods: contractually based exchanges, arm's-length exchanges, standardized goods, and fixed prices. The bazaar merchant's reputation is no longer the key to his business success. And the bazaar no longer maintains the kind of internal cohesion necessary to mobilize the business community for political ends. So much so, Keshavarzian convincingly shows, that Tehran's bazaar is no longer an important political force.