Introduction
The notion of social cleavages is a fundamental aspect of contemporary political science. Scholars, since the 1980s, have engaged themselves in the process of interpreting what a social cleavage is, and consequently how social cleavages influence electoral behavior, patters of party organization, and above all party systems.
The concept of social cleavages was introduced in 1967 by Seymour Lipset and Stein Rokkan in their renowned scientific article: «Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments». Since then, the concept of cleavages acquired essential salience for the world of political science. «The notion of a cleavage implies much more than a mere division, more even than an outright conflict» (Gallagher, Laver, Mair, 2006: 264).
For Lipset and Rokkan, a cleavage contains three tangible connotations: «First, a cleavage involves a social division Social cleavage is a division between political parties and Social class, religion, geographic regions, urban/rural areas and interest groups. These are significant because they generally determine party affiliation and how to appeal to each group. Karl Marx believed middle and upper class citizens to be mostly conservatives, while the working class were more progressive, however social class alone does not determine political affiliation. Religion is a better determining factor than social class because people who are affiliated with their specific religion tend to vote along the lines of what their church or other religious institution holds to be important. Rural areas tend to lean more to the left especially where development is still in progress, compared to modernized cities or urban areas where living conditions are better and education is more readily available. Geography is important because of the differing viewpoints in sections of regions. An example might be Ireland and the struggle between the north and south for political dominance.
Contemporary analysis speaks of the emergence of new cleavages. The traditional opposition between Owner and Worker (Capital and Work) is being differentiated further among those who have work/are employable and those who are not. Further, sex becomes another cleavage, especially in regard to getting and maintaining a paid labor position.
Review of literature
Hanspeter Kriesi recognizes the emergence of moral-value cleavages, implying however, at the same time, that this change does not necessarily means the end of structured politics and social divisions. On the contrary, Kriesi asserts that the new cleavages have emerged from the political heritage of the traditional ones (Kriesi, 1998:165). The decline of the traditional cleavages importance and the parallel emergence of new value - moral cleavages, are strongly interconnected with the emergence of a 'new middle class', «that constitutes the major population fragment in the Western European democracies» (Kriesi, 1998: 168). In a similar post - materialist vain, Dalton argues for the emergence of a new more modern and more politically sophisticated electorate that holds an enhanced individual economic status, and has access, particularly through television, to a huge amount of information regarding politics. Consequently, this more educated and with a higher quality of life electorate, acts more as an individuals, rather than on a collective and sub cultural basis. «Hence, the old politics, based on a massive scale on the class cleavage, are being replaced by some new politics, based on a whole of social cleavages» (Dalton et al, 1984: 21).
About ethnicity and its trend and results of ethnic conflict in Iran have been done significant researches but no of them attention and assessment of ethnic cleavage in particular. In Jalayipoor (1990) view five factor of correlation, political party, border situation, elites and modern government causes of ethnic conflicts in Iran.
But in the historical research of Ahmady (1995) International system, political elites and government attitudes reasons of ethnic uprising specially among Kurds, Turks and Baluches in Iran. Others such Amir Ahmady (1999:219) attention to subject and object factors such ideology, culture, inequality.
Some others consider to variable elements such structure discourse, deprivation and undeveloping of ethnic societies (Balali, 1990, Habibi, 2000, Koohshkaf, 1990. Entessar, 1992, Gurr and scarpit, 1989).
Theoretical frameworks
Social and political scientist tries to elaborated theory about ethnicity. Those perspective were so extensive that we couldn't review all of them, some of them attention to permanent and some of them consider to new and modern factors (seeferon.2005). For this study we concentrated on Rokan theory.
Stein Rokan (1967) defined four basic cleavages for western civilization after the Industrial Revolution. According to Lipset and Rokan, these cleavages determined the emergence and the content of all European parties.
Center - Periphery - The division between elites in the urban areas, and those in more outlying areas. This usually expresses itself in terms of regional nationalism. For example, in Spain many regions have regionalist or separatist parties. This division is, according to Lipset and Rokan, caused by the creation of modern nation-states, where some states were better than others at assimilating other cultures into the majority nation.
State - Church - A division between religious and secular voters. In the Netherlands until the 1970s there were five major parties: the Catholic People's Party (KVP), the Protestant Anti Revolutionary Party (ARP) and Christian Historical Union (CHU), the social democratic Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), and the liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the last two being secular.
Owner - Worker - A class cleavage, causing the formation of parties of the left and parties of the right. Sometimes it is argued that this cleavage represents a conflict between the rich and poor. Various parties have claimed to represent either interest, though this may or may not be genuine.
Land - Industry - Continued state exercise of control over Tariffs against freedom of control for industrial enterprise.
Research questions
- Which is the base of historical ethnic cleavage?
- Under which conditions, these cleavages to be activated?
- How to reduce or resolve these problems?
Methods
The method of this research is comparative historical in which we used historical documents and data. In this field, I have compared data of indexes of socio-economic of ethnic states. Data are from The Statistical Center of Iran.
In this field we attention to the shares and differences among provinces. At the same time comparisons historical for consider social gaps in one hand and consider to the social organization and activities that build up on the social cleavages.
Analysis
In the Qajar era we have not social cleavage and ethnicity in Iran. When Reza shah come to power and change the social structure of society ethnic cleavages activated. Reza shah take the Cultural model of nationalism for Iran, concentrated everything in capital and forbidden ethnic culture and customs. He get economic program for developing of country but the distribution of resource and income was unfair. For this purpose we must consider some data (table.1)
Table.1) indexes for comparison of states in 1975. (Reference: Center of Statistical in Iran1975)
|
State |
Big factory per 100000 |
grade |
Value of product per1000
|
grade |
Persons in industrial per 1000 |
grade |
|
All |
15/7 |
|
|
|
1/2 |
|
|
Tehran |
33/4 |
1 |
45925 |
2 |
33/3 |
1 |
|
Gilan |
12/6 |
5 |
24960 |
3 |
8 |
5 |
|
Mazandaran |
10/7 |
7 |
9396 |
6 |
7/8 |
6 |
|
East Azarbijan |
23 |
3 |
3976 |
9 |
6/5 |
7 |
|
West Azarbijan |
8/1 |
9 |
1927 |
14 |
3 |
12 |
|
Kermanshah |
7/8 |
10 |
3364 |
10 |
26 |
13 |
|
Khositan |
9 |
8 |
54850 |
1 |
12/2 |
4 |
|
Fars |
7/6 |
11 |
6808 |
7 |
5 |
9 |
|
Krman |
7/3 |
12 |
2734 |
13 |
1/2 |
14 |
|
Khorasan |
11 |
6 |
4783 |
8 |
5/1 |
8 |
|
Isfahan |
22/5 |
4 |
19145 |
4 |
24/2 |
2 |
|
Sistan and blughstan |
0/9 |
21 |
4/5 |
21 |
1/4 |
19 |
|
Kurdistan |
1/7 |
20 |
742 |
18 |
0/5 |
22 |
|
Hamadan |
6/1 |
13 |
1232 |
17 |
1/8 |
16 |
|
Chahar mahal wbakhtiary |
3/2 |
17 |
628 |
19 |
0/75 |
21 |
|
Lorestan |
4/6 |
15 |
1335 |
11 |
3/4 |
11 |
|
Kokiloye bouerahmad |
0/9 |
22 |
425 |
22 |
0/8 |
22 |
|
Boshahr |
3 |
18 |
1704 |
15 |
2 |
15 |
|
Za njan |
2/3 |
19 |
506 |
20 |
1/2 |
18 |
|
Simnan |
4/7 |
14 |
2825 |
12 |
3/4 |
10 |
|
Yazd |
27/8 |
2 |
13705 |
5 |
22 |
3 |
|
Hormizgan |
1/4 |
16 |
1445 |
16 |
1/8 |
17 |
When we consider to the ethnic situation in provinces know that this program raised the situation of some group and decrease the grade and circumstance of other in country. For most illustrated pay to another table after ten years of programming (table.2).
Table.2) indexes for comparison of states in 1985. (Reference: Center of Statistical in Iran1985)
|
state |
Big factory per 100000 |
grade |
Value ofproduct per 1000
|
grade |
Persons inindustrial per 1000 |
grade |
|
all |
15/7 |
|
49154 |
|
|
|
|
Tehran |
22/2 |
5 |
115868 |
2 |
31 |
2 |
|
Markazi |
31/5 |
2 |
94393 |
3 |
9 |
3 |
|
Gilan |
11/9 |
8 |
40325 |
6 |
19 |
6 |
|
Mazandaran |
10/6 |
10 |
30555 |
10 |
10 |
9 |
|
East Azarbijan |
10/5 |
11 |
32090 |
9 |
8 |
10 |
|
West Azarbijan |
8/2 |
13 |
8284 |
18 |
3 |
18 |
|
Kermanshah |
4/9 |
20 |
11139 |
14 |
4 |
15 |
|
Khositan |
5/1 |
18 |
36294 |
7 |
10 |
8 |
|
Fars |
10/5 |
12 |
27243 |
11 |
8 |
11 |
|
Krman |
5/6 |
16 |
9664 |
16 |
3 |
19 |
|
Khorasan |
11/5 |
9 |
21715 |
12 |
7 |
12 |
|
Isfahan |
24/5 |
3 |
70865 |
5 |
25 |
3 |
|
Sistan and blughstan |
5/5 |
17 |
1773 |
22 |
1 |
22 |
|
Kurdistan |
6 |
15 |
1799 |
21 |
1 |
21 |
|
Hamadan |
14/2 |
7 |
13329 |
13 |
5 |
14 |
|
Chahar mahal wbakhtiary |
4/8 |
21 |
3356 |
19 |
2 |
20 |
|
Lorestan |
6/8 |
12 |
9926 |
15 |
5 |
13 |
|
Kokiloye bouerahmad |
2/3 |
24 |
442 |
24 |
0/2 |
24 |
|
Boshahr |
3/9 |
22 |
3031 |
20 |
3 |
16 |
|
Za njan |
17/9 |
6 |
127844 |
1 |
32 |
1 |
|
Simnan |
24/5 |
4 |
34239 |
8 |
14 |
7 |
|
Yazd |
35 |
1 |
76603 |
4 |
23 |
4 |
|
Hormizgan |
5 |
19 |
8459 |
17 |
3 |
17 |
In this table ethnic inequality is very clear and institutionalized. People divided in groups some of developing and other under developing. This story has a long tale .for more attentions look at (table.3).
Table.3) comparison industrial grades of states in 1974, 1984, 1994
|
1974 |
1984 |
1994 |
||||||
|
grade |
name |
Grade of industrialization |
grade |
name |
Grade of industrialization |
grade |
name |
Grade of industrialization |
|
1 |
Khositan |
0/509 |
1 |
Isfahan |
0/647 |
1 |
Khositan |
0/461 |
|
2 |
Tehran |
0/655 |
2 |
Tehran |
0/727 |
2 |
Krman |
0/569 |
|
3 |
Isfahan |
0/666 |
3 |
Zanjan |
0/753 |
3 |
Isfahan |
0/676 |
|
4 |
Fars |
0/673 |
4 |
Khositan |
0/768 |
4 |
Tehran |
0/732 |
|
5 |
Krman |
0/738 |
5 |
East Azarbijan |
0/779 |
5 |
Fars |
0/747 |
|
6 |
Gilan |
0/768 |
6 |
Krman |
0/780 |
6 |
Yazd |
0/767 |
|
7 |
Mazandaran |
0/772 |
7 |
Yazd |
0/792 |
7 |
Zanjan |
0/767 |
|
8 |
Khorasan |
0/793 |
8 |
Fars |
0/805 |
8 |
Lorestan |
0/774 |
|
9 |
Kermanshah |
0/801 |
9 |
Lorestan |
0/808 |
9 |
Gilan |
0/801 |
|
10 |
Yazd |
0/820 |
10 |
Mazandaran |
0/829 |
10 |
Mazandaran |
0/806 |
|
11 |
Lorestan |
0/723 |
11 |
Khorasan |
0/838 |
11 |
Hormizgan |
0/807 |
|
12 |
Boshahr |
0/825 |
12 |
Gilan |
0/849 |
12 |
East Azarbijan |
0/811 |
|
13 |
East Azarbijan |
0/833 |
13 |
Simnan |
0/861 |
13 |
Khorasan |
0/834 |
|
14 |
Hamadan |
0/837 |
14 |
Hormizgan |
0/861 |
14 |
Kermanshah |
0/847 |
|
15 |
WestAzarbijan |
0/852 |
15 |
Kermanshah |
0/867 |
15 |
Simnan |
0/852 |
|
16 |
Hormizgan |
0/853 |
16 |
West Azarbijan |
0/874 |
16 |
Hamadan |
0/856 |
|
17 |
Simnan |
0/858 |
17 |
Sistan |
0/903 |
17 |
Chaharmahal |
0/866 |
|
18 |
Kokiloye ve bouerahmad |
0/862 |
18 |
Kurdistan |
0/942 |
18 |
Kokiloye bouerahmad |
0/869 |
|
19 |
Kurdistan |
0/862 |
19 |
Hamadan |
0/942 |
19 |
Boshahr |
0/871 |
|
20 |
Chahar Mahal |
0/871 |
20 |
Boshahr |
0/942 |
20 |
Sistan |
0/877 |
|
21 |
Zanjan |
0/892 |
21 |
Chaharmahal |
0/953 |
21 |
West Azarbijan |
0/882 |
|
22 |
Sistan |
0/982 |
22 |
Kokiloye |
0/965 |
22 |
Kurdistan |
0/911 |
This table shows near 20 years of planning for development but when we consider to the outcome resulted that society divided by mismanagements.
Conclusions
The goal of this study was explore the context of ethnic cleavages in Iran. Data and tables show that circumstance of ethnic in society is divided by inequality in economy, opportunity and works. This situation causes ethnic activities that we know as ethnic cleavages. The Reza shah program and continue by others was the important factors in subjects, try to resolve and take off obstacle could decrease or resolve activated ethnic cleavage in Iran.
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