State Studies

Paradigmatic Transformation of the Concept of State in Contemporary Iran: from Amir Kabir to Malkam

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Davoud Feirahi 1
Davood Bayat 2

1 Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 PhD, Department of Political Sciences, Mofid University, Qom, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22054/tssq.2024.55774.997
Abstract
Extended Abstract
Introduction
In this article, we try to explore the emergence of the new concept of State in the first decades of Nasere al-Din Shah's reign by using Reinhart Koselleck’s system of concepts. We are not faced with a fixed and frozen concept called the State, because this concept, especially in the threshold period, is accumulated with layers of heterogeneity and the historicity of those themes, Created the historicity and fluidity of the concept of the state, and its controversial nature, Produces conflict between supporters and carriers of concepts. In response to the question of the historical time of the emergence of the new concept of the State in contemporary Iran, it can be claimed that with Amir Kabir, the concept of the State advanced to the threshold of a paradigmatic transformation, but the hardness of the Hard layers of the concept of the State and the forces that carry them prevented The complete emergence of such a new phenomenon at that historical moment. Despite this, the first and fundamental step in the paradigmatic evolution of the concept of the State in that era was taken by Amir Kabir with the language of his statesmanship, and the second and historic step was taken by Mirza Malkam Khan. The result of the research says that the common denominator of these two founders is passing over the myth of the sensory existence and the imaginary "person" of the State, and emphasizing and focusing on the Rational and impersonal existence of the State, which manifests itself in the form of "Absolute Bureaucratic State" and "Regular State".
Materials and Methods
Our problem in this research is to track those temporal and linguistic layers of the concept of State in contemporary Iran, which, like many other Basic concepts, in the threshold period of its history, is exposed to anxiety, inflammation, and ambiguity caused by thematic and semantic changing. To investigate this semantic layering and to study the Change of the concept of the State in the contemporary history of Iran, we will take methodological benefits from the system of concepts of the theory of conceptual history of Koselleck (1923-2006). Conceptual history makes concepts especially Basic concepts such as the State as the " History analysis unit" and as the constructive concepts of political discourse and action of an era, the subject of its research.
Results and Discussion
The objective and practical content of what appeared in the governance of Amir Kabir was revealed as a Basic concept that became both a criterion for criticizing the State in Iran and a source of crisis for it. Those new semantic layers that formed the concept of Mirza Taghi Khani's State marked the history of the evolution of the concepts after them and gave shape and identity to the system of concepts of the constitutional State and the first Pahlavi State.
It can be said that what Malkam found out about the new concept of the State wrote down in Ghibi's booklet is the basis of every discussion that he has addressed in his treatises and other writings. And this new language and understanding is the beginning of the discourses that have flowed in the language of legalistic writers after him.
Conclusion
In this article, we tried to explore the emergence of new layers of meaning and the new concept of State in the mind and language of Amir Kabir and Malkam Khan by using the theory of Koselleck's conceptual history and its interwoven and related categories. With the emergence of historical time on the horizon of Iranians' consciousness and their opening to the threshold period of their history, the unity of time governing different areas of social life broke down and different rhythms prevailed in different areas of life. The intersection of two natural and historical times and the fast tempo of the modern time, created new themes in the form of concepts and words of the slow language of the traditional time and created layers of meaning that are completely different from the old layers of meaning.

Keywords

Concept of State
Threshold time
Critique and crisis
Amir kabir
Malkam
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State Studies
Volume 10, Issue 38
Autumn 2024
Pages 163-202

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