This book is a history, from the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 to the present, of the implementation of two political concepts, state-building and democratization.. It is not about the concepts themselves or the history of Iran, both of which the reader is expected to understand, but their interaction. In accordance with Francis Fukuyama, the authors see them as opposites that a state must try to realize together. Too much democratizing results in a feeble state, or anarchy; too much state-building results in totalitarianism; the problem is to find the right mix. In Iran, democratization has been the deficient ingredient.
Iran's weakness as a state became apparent even before the 20th century, when Britain and Russia overwhelmed her frail military forces and carved out considerable occupation zones. This weak state was a result of the arbitrary power granted to the shah ("king"), who readily gave foreigners concessions in return for payments. The tobacco boycott of the 1890s had been the result of a concession of the exclusive right to sell tobacco. Iranians reacted by refusing to smoke. The shah got the concession cancelled after paying a huge indemnity. Here we see popular disaffection with the shah, who was granted too much power by tradition. The Constitutional Revolution of 1906, gave Iran its first constitution and a national assembly (majles). The middle-class merchants and ulama (clergy), seeing the problem as an excessively powerful shah, set conditions on monarchical absolutism. The authors comments; "... the term constitutionalism was translated as 'mashroutiyat' (setting conditions) which implied placing conditions on monarchical absolutism." (p. 27) Here we see democratization. But Russia was a powerful force for the old order. The shah's successor turned to Russia and the Cossack Brigade to assert the monarchy's power and undo the Constitution. He arrested constitionalist leaders and ordered the Cossack Brigade (the most powerful military unit in the country, commanded by Russians) to bombard the parliament. Thus democratization was effectively stalled less than two years after the first parliament even if Iran did not fully return to the old pre-Constitutional situation.
Another instance of these conflicting concepts occurred immediately after World War I, when the condition of the country was anarchic. There were pro-communist rebels in Khorasan and Azerbaijan, unruly Kurdish tribes in the north, and various semi-autonomous states in the southeast. Reza Khan, commander of the Cossack Brigade, felt that this was a time for state-building, not democratization; Reza's forceful suppression of secessionists earned him the confidence of the Majles, who forced the last Qajar Shah, now an absentee in Paris, to abdicate and install himself as shah Reza Pahlavi. During his reign from 1925 to 1941. Reza was an extremely energetic ruler after the pattern of Ataturk in Turkey, who interfered with Iranians' personal lives -- no veil for women for example. No doubt there were some Iranian women who saw this as interference in their freedom
But we may not be sure just how democratizing or state-building a state action is. If a police department hires ten more officers, that could be state-building (if they are on patrol) or it may be democratizing (if they serve on a civilian review board). Quite likely it could be both. The authors are aware of this ambiguity and their book seems to struggle with it.. But they do present a detailed picture of recent developments in Iran from 1989 to the present and those who are interested in this period will likely read with attention.
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