Despite today’s gridlock, there are grounds for hope in the widespread embrace of democratic ideals by young people.
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.
The Islamic Republic is in a volatile, even prerevolutionary situation, hammered by foreign opposition and sanctions from the outside, and the disillusionment and discontent of its own people from within.…
This region’s five republics have just lived through a remarkable first decade of independence that raises questions about “preconditions”-based theories of democratization.