Is Iran Democratizing? The Role of the Intellectuals

Issue Date October 2000
Volume 11
Issue 4
Page Numbers 135-138
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The “Fourth Generation” of Iranian intellectuals has a vital role to play in strengthening civil society and fostering democratization.

About the Author

Ramin Jahanbegloo is head of the Department of Research on Contemporary Thought at the Cultural Research Bureau in Tehran. His books include Conversations with Isaiah Berlin (1991), Gandhi: Aux sources de la nonviolence (1998), and Iran and Modernity (2000). During 2001–2002 he was a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the International Forum for Democratic Studies in Washington, D.C.

View all work by Ramin Jahanbegloo

Further Reading

Volume 9, Issue 1

Iran’s Remarkable Election

Read the full essay here.

Volume 16, Issue 4

Iran’s Peculiar Election: What Should “We” Do Now?

The large number of nonvoters suggests that the movement for a free, internationally monitored referendum on the Islamic Republic’s constitution could gain widespread support. We must now work to make…

Volume 11, Issue 4

Is Iran Democratizing? Voices From Within: Excerpts from the Iranian Press

Four excerpts from the Iranian press-on elections and democracy and on religious intolerance and intellectual pluralism-suggest the extent to which democratic thinking has gained a foothold in Iran.