Democracy in Iran

Despite lacking any sort of military advantage over the regimes they have confronted, the Iranian people have never been dissuaded from rising against and challenging varying forms of injustice. Through the successful implementation of non-violent action Iranians have overcome the violence of successive governments by undermining their moral and political legitimacy. But more than a hundred years after the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, Iranians are still in search of a social covenant through which they can acquire and practice public freedom. The stakes are extremely high, if Iran fails to end its culture of violence as a state and society then it risks its future as a stable, democratic state. So how then can the Iranian people break the cycle of violent and oppressive regimes and start looking towards a non-violent and democratic future? There is no magic formula that will immediately end violence in Iran but this book argues that by shunning violence and showing a readiness to face down persecution that the Iranian people have a chance to secure their freedom.

Ramin Jahanbegloo is Associate Professor of Political Science and York-Noor Visiting Chair in Islamic Studies at York University, Canada as well as a Senior Fellow at the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies. He won the Peace Prize from the United Nations Association in Spain (2009) for his academic work promoting cross-cultural dialogue and his advocacy for non-violence as well as the Palau i Fabra International Prize for the Best Essay in 2011. His most recent publication was the Gandhian Moment which published in 2013.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART I: IRAN: THE ANGUISHED ODYSSES OF DEMOCRACY
1. Iran: A Century of Undemocratic Violence
2. Iranian Encounters with Democracy
3. Democracy and Lawfulness in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution
4.The Road to Authoritarian Violence: From the Coup of 1953 to the Revolution of 1979
5. The Two Sovereignties and Islamist Violence in Iran
PART II: DEMOCRATIC NONVIOLENCE: THE NEW IMPERATIVE
6. Struggle for Democracy in Iran
Epilogue