The Constitutional Revolution and the Idea of the National State within the Framework of Constitutional Monarchy: A Reflection on the Outcome

Nazari, Aliashraf

doi:10.22034/jrpl.2026.736169

The Constitutional Revolution and the Idea of the National State within the Framework of Constitutional Monarchy: A Reflection on the Outcome

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Aliashraf Nazari

Professor at Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran

10.22034/jrpl.2026.736169

Abstract

The Constitutional Revolution was the reflection of the first comprehensive national movement in Iran's contemporary history. By creating a form of general consensus, it managed to transcend the boundaries of traditional identity, initiating a movement towards achieving a new political identity based on the rejection of despotism, the demand for law, the establishment of modern institutions, the creation of a form of historical self-awareness, the pursuit of progress, the realization of freedom, and the establishment of equality. In fact, with the advent of the Constitutional Revolution, in addition to the emergence of diverse identity discourses — whose internal discursive concepts sometimes appeared completely contradictory to one another — a coalition was formed at the national level that placed before Iranians a new experience.The main question of this article is: What was the internal discursive nature of the Constitutional Revolution, and what were its outcomes? The hypothesis of the article is that the profound penetration of concepts derived from the first wave of modernity into the structural dimensions of Iranian society — which manifested itself in the form of liberal constitutionalism and the establishment of parliamentary democracy — along with political initiatives and innovations, and the formation of new parties and political groups, led to the emergence of a modern pattern of political activity and the direction of political actions and efforts aimed at limiting the monarch's arbitrariness, redressing the wrongs of the nobility and princes, preventing landowners from encroaching upon the rights and freedoms of the people, and striving for the realization of awareness, freedom, and equality.At this juncture, with the creation of a kind of political-social transformation distinct from previous eras, we witness the formation of new processes whose internal discursive elements exhibit a kind of incongruity, asynchrony, and non-conformity with traditional discourse. This endows the Constitutional Revolution with characteristics that allow it to be regarded as "the boundary between old and new Iran." Constitutionalism is the point of departure for a movement in which the effort to transform traditional attitudes, perceptions, and the relations arising from them, along with the initiation of modern ideas and institutions, markedly draws a line of distinction between traditional and modern conceptions and stances.

Keywords

Constitutional Revolution

Monarchy

Iran

Law

Freedom