The role and influence of the clergy vis-a-vis political and social changes in Iran (1925-1979)

Social and political changes in Iran have affected the balance of power within the soci-ety. Yet, as a political figure, the Shah had never had a monopolistic position on social and political issues. However, he was able to hold his position with the support of ex-ternal forces or internal actors (tribes, the clergy, intellectuals, etc.). In fact, since the Safavid era, political leaders have endeavored to gain support from the clergy class which is known to have significant impact on society in order to consolidate the legiti-macy of their rule. This in turn has transformed the Iranian clergy into a class that be-came increasingly challenging and defiant toward political authority. In this thesis, it is aimed to discuss the political and social changes in Iran during the Pahlavi Dynasty (1925-1979) and the attitude of the clergy regarding these changes. Moreover, the role and position that the clergy holds in the Iranian society is examined alongside the historical and cultural process. Thus an extensive literature research has been made on this subject and as a method source inspection which is a branch of the qualitative research technique has been ap-plied (Turkish and English theses, scientific reports, academic articles, books, inter-views, etc.). Some answers were sought in this study: Could the failed modernization process be linked to Iran's sectarian structure? Why did the modernization process in Iran during the 19th and 20th centuries resulted in Islamic Revolution? Speaking of westernization practices in recent history, one wonders why despite obvious similarities between Iran and Turkey, these similarities interestingly cause different outcomes. What is the rele-vance of social structures in both countries regarding such disparity? From 1925 until 1979, the shahs' excessive westernism, ,external support, made con-cessions, a strict modernization process as well as their disrespectful behavior towards the clergy and innovations enriching themselves but increasing the income inequality inside the society finally pushed both society and clergy to an opposing standpoint to the disadvantage of the Shah's administration. In the light of the findings obtained in this work, it can be said that the socio-political power and the active role of the clergy class in Iran from the era of the Safavid Dynas-ty, where Shiism is the official sect of the state, until the era of the Pahlavi Dynasty en-abled the clergy to realize its own doctrines and aims. In addition to that, this also led to the failure of secular practices enforced by the Father and Son Pahlavi in the name of westernization and modernization. Thus, due to increasing power of the clergy, the process leading to the 1979 Iranian Is-lamic Revolution accelerated. Turkey and Iran witnessed similar modernization practic-es between 1925 and 1979, however, the process of westernization / modernization in Iran provoked a large-scale resistance that culminated in the Islamic Revolution. This leads back to differences in political culture, and clergy-state as well as clergy-society relations of the two countries. In this connection, Turkey's difference from Iran is that "In Turkey, there has not been any extensive resistance in form of a popular uprising or a monarchy / power opposition similar to the Iranian revolution spearheaded by the clergy." However, despite the fact that in Turkey's secular practice, religious and state affairs have been separated from each other, the Islamic infrastructure has always ex-isted. It either went underground or surfaced occasionally.