Malkom Khan’s Thoughts on Political Modernization from Bottom in Iran

Abstract

Malkom Khan in the second period of his political activity either as activist or as political thinker chose a different approach to political modernization. In this period, instead of addressing the monarch and government to gain their support for modernization, he addressed the people and adopted the approach of political modernization from bottom. In this period Malkom Khan proposed the idea of parliamentary constitutional monarchy and introduced this kind of government as the most proper government for Iran and in this regard for the first time he proposed the formation of the national consultative assembly, with its representatives elected not by the monarch but by the people. In line with parliamentary constitutional monarchy Malkom Khan proposed new and modern structures and institutions in order to achieve the political modernization program. Research result shows that his political thoughts faced a major shift. Unlike the first period of his thoughts during which his idea of political modernization was based on state building, in this period it is based on nation building and in order to prevent possible opposition from the clergy and conservative and religious segment of the populace to his thoughts and also in order to attract the support of the progressive class of clergymen with his political modernization thoughts he advocated a reconciliation of modern political thoughts with Islamic beliefs and teachings.