Welcome to this week's episode of the series Find Out More about the Islamic Revolution. Today, we discuss the impact of Iran's Islamic Revolution on the common theories about revolutions.

As it was mentioned in previous weeks, one of the features of Iran's Islamic Revolution is that in addition to its national aspect, the Islamic Revolution left huge impacts on the global scene. The global impact of the Islamic Revolution has also been of paramount importance in relation to the international theories about revolutions. The Islamic Revolution set the stage for changes in some of the global theories and presented new theories in regards to revolutions. This in turn led to major changes in the classification of theories about revolutions.

A number of different categorizations of theories on revolutions were presented; some of which were more important and further generalized. Theda Skocpol is one of the well-known theorists in the domain of revolutions, which has categorized the contemporary theories on revolutions into four groups.

The first group consists of Marxist theories, which name economic topics of importance as the main reason behind occurrence of revolutions. The second group is the psychological theories which argue that revolution does not take place in vacuum and is related to people's interpretation of the revolutionary situation and the type of reactions to this situation. The third group of theories argue that revolution is the violent response of ideological movements to social inequalities. The 4th group of theories consider the revolution as the outcome of conflicts between the ruling system and organized opposition groups. Meanwhile, the most important criticism that is leveled against Theda Skocpol's categorizations is that they do not take cultural and religious factors and parameters into consideration.

The other famed theorist on revolutions, Stan Tylor, has also categorized theories on revolutions into four sociological, psychological, economic, and political groups. In the sociological theories, the emphasis is mainly put on sociological factors such as the strata, and social system. Within the framework of psychological theories, emphasis is on psychological parameters, such as the characteristics of individuals; the mental state of the community and other topics of importance such as surge of expectations, and sense of deprivation. In the realm of economic theories, the emphasis is placed on the state of economy as the root cause of emergence of revolutions. The political theories revolve round political factors. In the categorizations of Tylor, attention has also been paid to major and minor topics. However, no attention has been paid to the features of countries and regions such as the Middle East region, which maintains major differences to other regions round the world; and within which religion plays a prominent role.

Some of the other theorists study the reasons behind emergence of revolutions such as the roles played by individuals, figures, structures, and organizations in emergence of revolutions. In some of the theories on revolutions, such as psychological theories, the features of the governing figures, and terms of leadership are studied, more than anything else. In some of the macro theories, focus is on macro structures such as the strata, the government, and world order.

Meanwhile, the victory of Islamic Revolution in Iran led to changes in different theories on revolutions. Upon the occurrence of Islamic Revolution, one can no longer present an absolute theory in the analyses of revolutions and to extend it to other revolutions. On this basis, Iran's Islamic Revolution challenged many theories in the realm of social sciences, and revolutions. It should be pointed out that the main aspect of Iran's Islamic Revolution is its cultural dimension.

The famed theorist on revolution, John Foran, who has studied the reasons behind emergence and culmination of Islamic Revolution in Iran, mentions the impact of the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the Nicaraguan revolution on the change and development of categorizations of theories on revolutions.

Furthermore, the prominent theorist of revolutions, Jack Goldstone, who had placed the 20th Century's theories of revolutions within the framework of three generations; upon the occurrence of Iran's Islamic Revolution and other revolutions on the waning years of the 20th Century, spoke of entry to the 4th generation of revolutions. The first generation which includes the theories existing up to the 1940s and termination of World War II, focuses on description of the revolutionary trend and process and states some of the signs of the revolutionary situation. In this group of theories, some of the signs of emergence of the revolution is studied rather than the reasons behind the occurrence of the revolutions. The second generation spans from the year 1940 to the year 1975, covering theories on revolutions, based on psychology, sociology, and/or political sciences. Within the third generation of theories on revolutions which took shape in mid-1970s, the theorists paid attention to the role of different structures in occurrence of revolutions, while neglecting factors such as ideals, ideology, and revolutionary leadership. In the meantime, in the view of Jack Goldstone, between the year 1970 to 1991, a number of revolutions took place in the world which manifested serious problems in the stated theories. In the waning years of the 1970s, in Iran and Nicaragua, dictators who were widely supported by the Western superpower, were ousted. In Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union, throughout the years 1989 to 1991, major changes took place as the result of demonstrations, protests, and public strikes, and dictatorial regimes were toppled. None of them could be described in accordance to the theories which were based on a few cases in the history of Europe and China. In the meantime, the occurrence of Islamic Revolution, more than other revolutions, left an impact on the changes in theories on revolutions. On this basis, Jack Goldstone put emphasis on the emergence of the 4th generation of theories related to revolutions. He pointed out that: It seems as though the era of third generation of theories related to revolutions has ended, however, the domination of the 4th generation of theories revolving round revolutions is yet to take place. This generation of theories will show the prominent role of identity, ideology, gender, networks, and leadership, and values several elements such as the role of culture and ideology, religion, mobilization of sources, and imbalanced development.

The victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran led to evident changes in the views and theories of theorists in the domain of revolutions. We will study the terms of impact of Iran's Islamic Revolution in this realm, next week.

RM/SS