Political Participation in Iran from Khatami to the Green Movement

Download or read book Political Participation in Iran from Khatami to the Green Movement written by Paola Rivetti and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-12-26 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the unintended consequences of top-down reforms in Iran, analysing how the Iranian reformist governments (1997–2005) sought to utilise gradual reforms to control independent activism, and how citizens responded to such a disciplinary action. While the governments successfully ‘set the field’ of permitted political participation, part of the civil society that took shape was unexpectedly independent. Despite being a minority, independent activists were not marginal: without them, in fact, the Green Movement of 2009 would not have taken shape. Building on in-depth empirical analysis, the author explains how autonomous activism forms and survives in a semi-authoritarian country. The book contributes to the debate about the implications of elite-led reforms for social reproduction, offering an innovative interpretation and an original analysis of social movements from a political science perspective.