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Review: ‘In this detailed study of Mohammad Khatami and his presidency Ghoncheh Tazmini has effectively balanced a study of Khatami’s personal and intellectual development with the historical and political context of developments in Iran. This is detailed by a penetrating study of his period as president from the late 1990s, which in turn is complemented by a broader theoretical study of some fundamental questions about civilisational and notional identities. She applies the notion of a ‘revolution from above’, combined with the analysis of developmental issues ‘from below’, and thus the material is firmly located in a robust conceptual framework.
This is far more than just a book about Khatami’s presidency, but is about the way that society and politics have developed in Iran, accompanied by the intellectual debates about civilisational differences and universal problems of modernization. The book does a very good job of identifying the various currents of intellectual thought and the factions based on them. Thus the book has policy relevance, in allowing those who have to deal with the country understand the dilemmas facing its leadership. Overall, the work brings out very well the tension in Khatomi between his reformist and conformist identities.
This is a book that I have certainly been waiting for.’ Description: To understand contemporary Iran’s complex politics, it is essential first to grasp the historic changes initiated by Mohammad Khatami. This previously little-known cleric stormed to victory in Iran’s 1997 presidential elections with nearly 70 per cent of the popular vote, encouraging Iran first reform movement to flourish during his eight-year tenure as president. Ghoncheh Tazmini’s book offers a thought-provoking, astutely close-up yet systematic analysis of Khatami the man and the leader. She provides us with the first major study of Khatami and his politics, unravelling from the inside the dramatic emergence and consequences of Iran’s vibrant reform movement.
Khatami’s political platform was predicated on consolidating the rule of law, encouraging intellectual discourse and advancing socio-political liberties. At the same time, Khatami aimed to set the country on the path to greater tolerance, integration into the world economy and rapprochement with the international community. Tazmini’s account of the man who became Iran’s charismatic and ambitious President-Reformer is authoritative and provocative, portraying Khatami as a leader who combined exceptional resilience with periods of hesitancy and indecision in the face of dilemmas associated with his role as the first Iranian figure to implement change in the Islamic Republic of Iran. She describes how, despite the institutional constraints associated with Iran’s power structure and powerful conservative opposition, the reform movement successfully managed to set in motion a pluralistic momentum in Iran.
Balanced and analytical, this book provides a comprehensive and finely detailed introduction to the subtleties of contemporary Iran’s complex political culture. Timely and accessible, Khatami’s Iran is an important reference point for a critical stage in Iran’s post revolutionary trajectory.
Contents: Acknowledgements • Introduction • The Man Behind the Movement • Early Life • The Making of a Leader • The Ideas Behind Reform • The History of Development in Iran • Imperial Westernisation: Modernisation from Above • Islamic Theocratisation: Revolntion from Above • Reform: Towards an Iranian ‘Third Way’? • The Khatami Way • Backdrop of the Reform Movement • The Need for Reform • Ideology and Factionalism • The First Presidential Bid • 23 May 1997: A New Chapter in Iranian History • From Slogan to Practice • Institutionalising Change • Democracy and Society • Women and Change in Gender Politics • Legislature Change: Local Councils and the Majles • The Politics of Economic Reform • Khatami and the World • Unveiling Iran’s Iron Curtain: Dialogue Among Civilisations • New Political Thinking and Foreign Policy • Iran-USA: Window of Opportunity? • The Limits of Dialogue • Obstacles to Reform • Paradoxes of the Power Structure • Political Resistance • Opposition and Khatami’s Second Presidential Bid 2004 Majles Elections • Failure to Bridge the Political Divide • Khatami: Reformist or Conformist? • Khatami’s Revolution and Beyond • Khatami’s Conceptual Revolution • From Islamic Revolution to Islamic Reformism Khatamism • Strengths and Weaknesses of the Reform Movement • The Legacy of the Khatami Experiment • Appendix • References • Index ISBN - 9781845115944
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Pages : 220
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