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A Generational Perspective on the Development of the Political History of Modern Iran

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Date Issued:
2015
Abstract/Description:
Mark Twain once remarked, (")History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.(") If such recurrences happen with some discernible periodicity it would support the view that society develops cyclically. Though still controversial, this perspective has found a home in the long wave cycle theories of economics and international relations. For decades, international relation theorists have argued over which factor has primarily driven the interstate system, but this paradigm transforms that debate into a query over which of them serves as the medium for carrying waves of social change, be it war, trade, class, or gender relations. William Strauss and Neil Howe, however, found that there is no medium. Instead, long wave cycles result from oscillations of the supply and demand for order due to generational turnover. Essentially, it is a method of error correction, of stabilizing society against the forces of disruptive change wrought by modernity. Though it broadly encompasses many long wave cycle theories, it has yet to be applied to study the modern history of a developing country. Iran offers such a case to test the limits of Strauss and Howe's theory, which this study will perform by comparing its history over the last two centuries, particularly since the turn of the twentieth century, to their theory's expectations. Moreover, in accounting for the deviations, this study attempts to extend their theory to include the modernization process itself, and how it relates to the generational cycle.
Title: A Generational Perspective on the Development of the Political History of Modern Iran.
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Name(s): McDowall, Gregory, Author
Sadri, Houman, Committee Chair
Knuckey, Jonathan, Committee Member
Kang, Kyungkook, Committee Member
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2015
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: Mark Twain once remarked, (")History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.(") If such recurrences happen with some discernible periodicity it would support the view that society develops cyclically. Though still controversial, this perspective has found a home in the long wave cycle theories of economics and international relations. For decades, international relation theorists have argued over which factor has primarily driven the interstate system, but this paradigm transforms that debate into a query over which of them serves as the medium for carrying waves of social change, be it war, trade, class, or gender relations. William Strauss and Neil Howe, however, found that there is no medium. Instead, long wave cycles result from oscillations of the supply and demand for order due to generational turnover. Essentially, it is a method of error correction, of stabilizing society against the forces of disruptive change wrought by modernity. Though it broadly encompasses many long wave cycle theories, it has yet to be applied to study the modern history of a developing country. Iran offers such a case to test the limits of Strauss and Howe's theory, which this study will perform by comparing its history over the last two centuries, particularly since the turn of the twentieth century, to their theory's expectations. Moreover, in accounting for the deviations, this study attempts to extend their theory to include the modernization process itself, and how it relates to the generational cycle.
Identifier: CFE0006226 (IID), ucf:51083 (fedora)
Note(s): 2015-08-01
M.A.
Sciences, Political Science
Masters
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): long wave theory -- generational cycle -- history of Iran -- political development -- modernity
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006226
Restrictions on Access: campus 2019-02-15
Host Institution: UCF

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