“Ruritania” and “Megalomania” as "ideal models" in Ernest Gellner’s concept of nationalism and the prospects for its application to analysis of Iranian history

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the implentation possibilities of classical theories of nationalism to analysis of the Iranian nationalism history. The author analyzes the ideal models of Ruritania and Magalomania as imagining nationalizing and modernizing societies proposed by Ernest Gellner. The novelty of the study lies in the analysis of the features and contradictions of the development of the historical forms of Iranian nationalism in contexts of the ideal models proposed in modernist historiography. It is assumed that the nationalist modernization of the Qajars and Pahlavi in Iranian historiography is perceived through the prism of a constructivist approach. The article analyzes 1) the problems of the inability of nationalism to become the dominant and determining political force that constructs the main features of the development of society and the state in Iran, 2) the features of the development and transformation of the traditions of political and ethnic nationalism, 3) the role of the ruling Qajar and Pahlavi dynasties in implentation of various strategies of nationalist modernization. The article also shows the potential of a comparative analysis of various historical forms of Iranian nationalisms in contexts of a constructivist approach. The results of the study suggest that 1) the causes and forms of the crisis of the nationalist project in Iran can be described and analyzed adequately with use of Ruritania and Megalomania concepts as ideal types of nationalism development, formulated by Ernest Gellner in contexts of social and cultural histories as confrontations between the political principles of the nation and religious principles and ideals of the Ummah; 2) Iranian modern system emerged as an attempt to institutionalize a compromise between a civilized modernized Megalomania and traditional Shia Ruritania, which led to a combination of political nationalism with an internationally declared recognition of the primacy of Shiism.