State Studies

Review the Structure of power and forms of interaction between the State and the Ethnicities in Iran, the traditional, constitutional, and Pahlavi period

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Vahid Sinaee 1
Yones Irandegani 2

1 Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

2 , PhD student, Department of Political Science, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22054/tssq.2026.74017.1417
Abstract
Introduction
The main goal of this article is to know the forms of interaction between State-Ethnicities under different structure of power in the traditional, constitutional and Pahlavi eras. The issue of ethnic participation in government affairs has been an important topic in different historical periods of Iran. Paying attention to the background and socio-political atmosphere in the important issue of how Ethnicities behave politically with the State shows Ethnic that throughout Iranian history, as rational actors, have defined their type of relationship and interaction with the State by assessing the conditions and structures of political opportunity. The type of relationship between Ethnicities and the State is not an inherent thing but rather a result of the environmental perceptions of Ethnicities resulting from the power structure or the State ' dealings and policies with ethnic demands. In the present study, by considering issues of this kind, the forms of interaction between the State and Ethnicities in the traditional, constitutional, and Pahlavi periods are examined. These forms of relationship extend from cooperation and competition to conflict.
 
Materials and Methods
 
  The method of this research is qualitative of the historical explanatory type. In the historical explanatory method, by acknowledging the fact that social research requires historical data, by collecting historical data on the relations between the state and the Ethnicities in Iran and configuring and connecting this data in a continuous process, propositions and concepts are extracted and deduced from them to explain and interpret the mutual relations between the state and the Ethnicities in the time periods considered in the research.
 
Results and Discussion
 
In traditional Iran, there was no centralized power, but in those diverse powers in the field of governance balanced each other in a specific logic and order. As a result of the situation of these diverse powers, adjustments were always made in a balanced relationship that prevented one power from becoming dominating the other. From the contnuity of this process, the relationship between the State and the Ethnicities in the framework of the exchange of land and resources for the mobilization of power in the form of army collection and taxation, a kind of dispersion of power was stabilized and reproduced in Iran.
The logical foundations of the power structure of the Meluk al - Tawaifi that is, the exchange of power resources between the central State and the local power cores The formalization‌ of this mechanism with the approval of the law of state and provincial associations as a product of the constitutional revolution, it provides the possibility of accepting the request for participation Ethnicities in the construction of power, and according to the political opportunity structure, the contribution of " cooperation " in the relationship between the State and Ethnicities has been more prominent than the forms of "competition" and especially " conflict".
During the Pahlavi era, with priority given to ethnic, security and centralist policies to the demands of the Ethnicities in the political, cultural and economic fields affected by the foundations of power structure in the Pahlavi absolutist State, there was less possibility to accept the demand for the participation of the Ethnicities in the structure power, and consequently the contribution of "conflict" in the relationship between the State and Ethnicities has been more prominent than the forms of "competition" and especially "cooperation".
 
Conclusion
 
Review and comparing the indicators of ethnic mobilityies in the constitutional and Pahlavi periods shows that during the constitutional period, ethnic mobilities were of the type of local-traditional autonomy in the Structure of the power of the Meluk al – Tawaifi. In other words, the ethnic mobilities in the Mamâlek-e Mahruse were not of the type of modern ethnic identity and value and territorial legitimization. While during the Pahlavi era, ethnic mobilities were accompanied by violence and in the form of divergent autonomies. In creating this situation, on the one hand, attention must be paid to the role and impact of identity values on the political behavior of individuals and social groups. on the other hand, notice should be paid to the authoritarian and centralized structure of the Pahlavi State which left no opportunity for proposing and pursuing ethnic demand in the political system.
Due to the modern archaism discourse of the ethnic policy of the ideological Pahlavi State and as a result, the political opportunity structure of the Pahlavi era, in sum, had a closed nature.
The consequence of the closed and ideological intersubjective space of the Pahlavi non-democratic political opportunity structure in the understanding and imaginations of ethnic elites was a kind of constructed pessimism that led to the formation of ethnic movements seeking autonomy and separatism and having a value and identity nature. On the one hand,  the ideological ethnic policy of the modern Pahlavi State, which was rooted in archaic nationalism and targeted the identity and cultural foundation of the Ethnicities, on the other hand, the Ethnicities dissatisfaction with    unequal treatment and the failure to fulfill their desires , which are related to preserving their   valuable identity, played a fundamental role in shaping and advancing ethnic strategies In the form of nationalism and ethnic movement in pursuing their demands from the State and consequently the type of relationship between the State and the Ethnicities. The more the State pays attention to the values and identity of the community in defining nationalism, the more loyalties of groups will shift from local to general and national, and vice versa. After stating these premises, it can be concluded that from the modern Pahlavi State onwards, the nature of the state's ethnic policy from the political and cultural dimension to the economic dimension, has had the greatest and most effective role in the specific type of strategy of the ethnic movements in pursuing their demands from The State and, as a result, the type of relationship between the State and Ethnicities.

Keywords

Ethnicities
State
Traditional
Constitutionalism
Cooperation
Pahlavi
Conflict
Subjects
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State Studies
Volume 11, Issue 44
Autumn 2025
Pages 289-344

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