The Post-revolutionary Hierocracy in Iran: Fundamentalism or populism?

Abstract

Few words are being used so frequently in the study of religion as the word fundamentalism. Even though the term was coined more than a century ago, it was with the establishment of the post-revolutionary hierocracy in Iran that it became part of common language. At the same time there are scholars who reject the term fundamentalism as an analytical tool regarding Iran. According to Ervand Abrahamian, Third World Populism is a more adequate term in describing the postrevolutionary hierocracy in Iran. This paper seeks to examine the strengths and shortcomings of Abrahamian’s criticism of fundamentalism relative the post-revolutionary hierocracy in Iran. This is done by an analysis of the relationship between religious fundamentalism and modernity. In so doing I conclude that it is possible and plausible to define fundamentalism in such a way that it can be applied to the theocracy in Iran.