Capitalism in contemporary Iran

Capital accumulation, state formation and geopolitics

Kayhan Valadbaygi

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781526161789
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526161772
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

This book traces the patterns of capital accumulation and the changes in class and state formation emanating from it in Iran during the global neoliberal era. It demonstrates how there are inner connections between the nature of contemporary development in Iran, the form of the state, the ongoing sociopolitical transformations in society and the geopolitical tensions with the West. Simultaneously, it highlights that these issues should be explored in terms of their internal relations to the motions and tendencies of neoliberal global capitalism and resulting geopolitics. Accordingly, the book demonstrates that Iranian neoliberalisation has brought about new contested class dynamics that have fundamentally reconstructed the Iranian ruling class, aggressively shaped and reshaped the working class and the poor, and drastically impacted the state form and its foreign policy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Note on transliteration and translation
• 1 Framing Iran: A historical materialist approach
• 2 Modern Iran from Pax Britannica to Pax Americana: The emergence and consolidation of capitalism
• 3 1979 revolution and war with Iraq: The expansion of state capitalism
• 4 Neoliberalisation and the ruling class reconfiguration (1989–2013)
• 5 Neoliberalisation and the institutional and ideological reconstitution of the state
• 6 Class struggles in neoliberal Iran: From workers’ resistance in the 1990s to the post-2017 uprisings
• 7 Neoliberalism and geopolitics: The Iranian nuclear programme, international sanctions and regional policy
• 8 Conclusion: Future paths under the crisis of neoliberalism, the changing global order and revolts from below
• Bibliography
• Index