Welcome to this week's episode of the series "Find out more about the Islamic Revolution". Today, we study some of the most important theories about revolution which have been presented in other countries prior to the emergence of Iran's Islamic Revolution, while also analyzing the influence of the Islamic Revolution on the correctness or falsehood of these theories.

One of the main theories about the reasons behind emergence of revolutions is the Marxist theory. Karl Marx defined revolution as a change from one phase in history to another phase, as the result of change in the terms of production. In other words, Marxist theory argues that a revolution occurs when the production forces reach the stage of growth and development. Marx argues that the ruling class continues to exploit the labor force, which ultimately leads to the revolution of workers against rulers. Karl Marx stated that the emergence and occurrence of revolutions are rooted in economic topics of importance.

Meanwhile, a number of authors, such as Olivier Roy baselessly claimed that Iran's Islamic Revolution has Marxist roots.

In criticism of the Marxist theories about the Islamic Revolution, it should be said that although the Islamic Revolution was not a uni-dimensional revolution; its most important root was not economic concerns. The Father of Islamic Revolution, late Imam Khomeini (God's mercy upon him) noted that: "Iranian people from all walks of life took to streets, unanimously seeking the sacred religion of Islam."

Moreover, Mansour Moaddel is one of the theorists about revolutions, who underscores that economic concerns and social discontent were not the main reasons behind the emergence of the Islamic Revolution. Iran's Islamic Revolution emerged when the actions of the opposition groups to the former Iranian despotic regime were shaped based on Shia revolutionary dialog.

James Davis is another famed theorist on revolutions, who has presented the famous theory of relative deprivation. Davis believes that absolute poverty and deprivation cannot act as a driving force behind emergence of a revolution, given that people mired in absolute poverty, more than anything else, make utmost efforts to meet their essential needs. He adds that people are unlikely to stage an uprising when they live in appalling conditions. He argues that "the important factor is relative deprivation. Relative deprivation leads to protests. If there is a relative long period of welfare; expectations arise that one can meet one's needs on a permanent basis and a dynamic confidence and continued expectation of appropriate living conditions take shape. Now, if after a long period of stable welfare and growth, a downward spiral emerges, and one witnesses a reduction in goods and services, a sense of insecurity takes shape and individuals come to believe that they can no longer fulfill their needs; resulting in a wide gap between what people want, and what people gain. Hence, the overwhelming sense of despair leads to revolutionary behavior and large-scale demonstrations and protests."

The emergence and culmination of Iran's Islamic Revolution revealed the shortcoming in the theory of James Davis, and proved him wrong.

In a study, Mohammad Hussein Panahi, showed that religious values and cultural factors played the largest roles in the emergence and victory of Iran's Islamic Revolution, while the economic factor did not play an important role, as such, in the occurrence and victory of Islamic Revolution. He points out that out of the 659 mottos chanted by people about the goals and values of Islamic Revolution; mottos about cultural goals and values consisted the majority of slogans. This fact goes to show that the Iranian people were mainly concerned over the poor cultural state of the community which was imposed by the former Pahlavi dictatorial regime.

Chalmers Johnson is another prominent theorist about revolutions. According to Johnson, the balance of a social system is tied to the level of compatibility between values and division of labor, and given that these two factors determine the structure of a community; a change in these factors results in a development in social structure. Whenever, pressures in or out of the system leading to imbalance, become significant, and a change in social structure seems as necessary; then a different form of change and development emerges in the community. Only under these conditions, the possibility of occurrence of a revolution turns into reality. According to Johnson, as long as the values within a community are compatible with the realities of that society, revolution doesn't occur in the society.

Meanwhile, the most important criticism that is leveled against Chalmers Johnson's theory, after the emergence and culmination of Iran's Islamic Revolution, is that Johnson does not pay any attention to the role of leadership of the revolution. In the meantime, numerous theorists strongly believe that the prudent and unique leadership of the Father of Islamic Revolution, late Imam Khomeini (God's mercy upon him) played a highly important role in the emergence and victory of the Islamic Revolution. Iran's Islamic Revolution showed that revolution does not solely occur due to imbalance between values and the environment, and in fact revolution needs a leader, who is legitimate and approved by people.

Iran's Islamic Revolution was a revolution based on Iranian people's religious demands and their call for establishment of justice, including the administration of justice in the economic realm.

MR/ME