12 juin 2019

Heure: 13h30
Lieu: Pavillon Charles-De Koninck, local 3470

Détails supplémentaires



From Chaos to Order : Comparative Anatomy, Evolution and Function of Absolutist State in Early Modern Europe and Early Twentieth-Century Iran

In this thesis, we sketch a theoretical perspective on how the adoption of different pieces and parts of the centralized state in early modern Europe and twentieth-century Iran created different ranges of state-society relations. By analyzing the social context of the early modern period in Western Europe (particularly in French and English states), I depict the ways in which the absolutist state came to be the most dominant mode of political order. Revealing the complexity of this transitional phase in Europe, I create four conceptual categories of transitional changes, which Western European societies underwent since the collapse of feudalism. These categories include changes in the boundaries of extractive power (1000-1900), changes in social class and rural-urban boundaries (1000‑1400), changes in ecclesiastical-political boundaries (1400‑1800), and changes in the perception of identity boundaries (1700‑1900). To deal with the question of how the new global order was structured in a non-European context, I turn to a case-specific study of Iran between the years 1925 and 1941 and under the rule of Reza Khan. Of particular importance in this part of the thesis is to demonstrate promises and pitfalls of the formation of the centralized state in Iran. I invoke a variety of economic, social and political mechanism such as market, social classes, and military to capture the characteristics of this process. In the final analysis of the thesis, I develop a typological model, which illustrates the different directions that absolutism took in Iran and Europe. This model contains three macro-level explanatory variables, (politics, economy, and society) accompanied with 17 indicators. Drawing, through analogy, ideas form mathematical concepts developed by chaos theory and system theory, I suggest that these 17 indicators are sets of ‘attractors’ that determine the internal dynamic of European and Iranian social systems.



Directeur de recherche :

Gilles Gagné, professeure associé
Département de sociologie, Université Laval

Examinateurs :

Francesco Cavatorta, professeur titulaire
Département de science politique, Université Laval

André C. Drainville, professeur titulaire
Département de sociologie, Université Laval

Examinateur externe :

Jacques-Alexandre Mascotto, professeur
Département de sociologie, UQÀM


Président : Olivier Clain, professeur titulaire
Département de sociologie, Université Laval