Javadi Yeganeh, Mohammad Reza (2010) \Triennials of Reform in Iran: Explaining the Collective Behavior of Iranians in the Public Domain] The World Philosophy Day Congress. Tehran: 21-24 November 2010.

Triennials of Reform in Iran: Explaining the Collective Behavior of Iranians in the Public Domain

There were numerous periods of efforts for establishing reforms in the contemporary history of Iran: Abbas Mirza (1228-1242 H.G), Ghaem Magham (1250-1251 H.G), Amir Kabir (1264-1268 H.G) and Nasir-al-Din-Shah (1224-1274 H.G), early days of the triumph of the constitutionalists and (1285-1287 H.G), Mosadegh(1330-1332 H.S), the period of Bazargan and Bani-Sadr (14357-1360 H.S) , the modifying policies of Hashemi Rafsanjani (1368-1372 H.S) and the KhatmiYs reform period (1375-1379). These periods (usually triennials) enjoy a similar procedure, and they help us to derive a model for the collective behavior of Iranian people in the public domain, according to the behavior of the actors.

Before the beginning of each period, the need for change was felt in the society and the reformerYs personality was appreciated by the people. In the beginning of the movement everything was ready for the reformer and the society expected him passionately, and sometimes this very sense of expecting a savior made people to expect too much from the reformer, and lose their hope for reform very easily after a while.

Usually the reformer was the most moderate person of his party, but some radicals always enhanced the radical expectations in the framework of reforms, so that all of the existing traditional structures of the society have been marked to be transgressed and denied through reforms, especially the religious ones. These transgressions were entailed within the reform project (although in the margins of the project), but the moderate reformer (i.e., the main executioner) usually refrained himself from approving these acts. The other problem was about vagueness of the line between reform and deconstruction, i.e., who is the real leader of the reforms, and who are claiming leadership?

As there is no clear limitation for defining what the reform is, everybody can entail himself in the reformist movement through social changes. The radicalism prevails and the social forces which were hardly involved in the reforms, change their attitude or keep quiet out of fear of development of deconstructive impulses. And the opponents of the reforms whom were silenced temporarily, express their full-fledge opposition to all of the reformist movements.

The main reformer is suspended in between, because of his former mistakes or unsuitable silence, and he cannot manage the emerged situation. Therefore through heavy destruction of the achievements, and social mental chaos and transgressing psychological innocence of people, everything regresses to the previous station. The society keeps silent for a while, and after a decade everything repeats itself.