The rotation of sub-paradigms of power in the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1376 to 1403

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Political Science/Faculty of Law and Political Science/Mazandaran University/Babolsar/Mazandaran/Iran

Abstract
The power paradigm approach is an explanation for the transfer of governments and in the context of investigating power changes at the level of agency and structure in four areas of accumulation, hegemony, identity and legitimacy. But at the level of government changes in a single system like the Islamic Republic, another approach should be used to explain the micro-changes under the macro-power paradigm of the Islamic Republic. The main question of the article is what approach can be used to explain the changes in the level of power under a political system. It seems that the best criterion for investigation is the investigation of discursive differences alongside the investigation of changes in agency and persons. In the Islamic Republic, since 1376, the two discourses of reformism and fundamentalism, with a continuity, are shifting and rotating power. This discursive turn is similar to the concept of Sattari power paradigm, which is considered a micro-paradigm turn due to discursive changes instead of changes in the four structural causes. In this article, the Sattari power paradigm approach is used to explain the rotation of sub-paradigms of power in the Islamic Republic. The result shows that the governments of Khatami, Rouhani, and the doctors are defined under the sub-paradigm of reformist power, and the governments of Ahmadinejad and Shahid Raisi are defined under the sub-paradigm of fundamentalism. This process of movement and rotation of power flow in the Islamic Republic is interpreted as the rotation of sub-paradigms of power in the Islamic Republic.

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