History-Assess the short and long term impact of Iran's 1979 Essay

History-Assess the short and long term impact of Iran's 1979 Revolution - Essay Example The causes of the Iranian Revolution, despite a seeming absence of general crisis so characteristic of previous revolutions of such magnitude1, were manifold. The twentieth century history of Iran was characterized by aggravation of social contradictions. The modernizing policies of the Pahlavi dynasty (1926-1979) were at best inconclusive: the political and civic reforms of the first Shah of the dynasty, Reza Shah Pahlavi, were accompanied by ruthless suppression of both clerical and left-wing oppositional movements2. After his abdication in 1941, the country found itself mired in instability caused by the effect of the WW II and foreign occupation4. After the failure of the attempt of the secular nationalist government of Mohammad Mosaddeq to nationalize oil industry, which led to the coup d’etat against Mosaddeq on August 19, 19534, Mohammad Reza Shah re-assumed the dictatorial powers of his father. At that time, the clerical forces of Iran sided with the Shah, fearing left -wing secularist regime5. The government of Mohammad Reza Shah embarked on the ambitious program of the so-called ‘White Revolution’ in the 1960s, which was to facilitate the development of modern industries in Iran. Despite Mohammad Reza Shah’s populist pretenses, his modernization strategy privileged large, modern enterprises and the oil sector, which served the needs of international market, to the detriment of small businesses traditionally united into the network of bazaar 6. The state developmentalist policies led to the uncontrollable inflation7. The Shah’s land reform actually contributed to the crisis, as the new peasant cultivators were unable to tend the land as efficiently as large-scale farms would, thus leading to massive increases in imports of food stuffs and accordingly in their prices8. The attempts of the Shah’s government to control soaring inflation in the mid-1970s only aggravated the situation9. The revolutionary movement, whi ch sprang from the clashes between the religious students and the Shah’s SAVAK security forces in the late 1977, eventually turned in the country-wide disturbances with the general strike of October 197810. The government of the Pahlavis was swiftly disintegrating, and on January 16, 1979 Mohammad Reza Shah left Iran. From then on, the victory of the Iranian Revolution was guaranteed. The signs of the general crisis in the Iranian economy were much pronounced in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution. As a result of wide-scale strike movement of 1978-1979, the country stood on the brink of economic collapse. As of 1980, the industrial output fell by almost 20%11 in comparison with the 1977 level, while total GNP of Iran in 1981 fell to 81 percent of that in 197712. The Revolution heralded the beginning of spontaneous campaign of occupations and confiscations; the workers’ committees were formed in many sectors, first of all, in oil industry13. Even though the govern ment did not actually contemplate total nationalization of private sector, the complicity of large banking institutions in massive capital flight forced it to bow to the pressures of popular movements and demands of Khomeini-led Revolutionary Council (RC), and in summer 1979 the nationalization of banks, insurance companies and major branches of industries was carried out14. Nevertheless, the PRG policy remained cautious in such important economic spheres as land