The Relationship between Religion, Government and Political Development: A historical Study on Iran and Turkey

علوم اجتماعی دانشگاه فردوسی مشهد

Article 5, Volume 6, Issue 1 - Serial Number 13, September 2009   

Document Type: Scientific-Research

DOI: 10.22067/jss.v0i0.8764

Author

Davood Razi^*

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between religion, government and political development in Iran and Turkey. The main research question is that “Is there any relationship between the conceptions of religion and government’s approach to political development? The method of research is comparative-historical. The results show that, given the current level of political development in these two countries, the conceptions of religion do not have any effect on the governments’ approach to political development in Iran and Turkey; it can even be argued that the non-secular conception of religion in Iran has relatively contributed to the growth and development of political indices; however, this process has had its own challenges and limitations. In Turkey, the secular conception of religion has also contributed to the expansion and improvement of political indices; however, the Turkish government had to face serious limiting challenges coming from non-democratic institutions and interfering militarists. Therefore the variable ‘conception of religion’ is not relevant and the research hypothesis is rejected.

Keywords: Type of the conception of religion, non-secular conception, secular conception, government’s approach to political development, revolutionary approach to political development, revised approach to political development.

References