e major function of an ideology is to provide the people of a society with a homogeneous
identity and accordingly contribute to the legitimacy of a government. Aiming to solve its
legitimacy crisis, the Pahlavi Government tried to develop a speci-c ideology, and to present
a new identity to Iran’s society based on that ideology during 1960’s and 1970’s. is need
arose because of the economic and social modernization policy which Pahlavi’s Government
adopted during this period in order to keep pace with global developments.
e main question of the present research is: which key elements and foundations formed
this ideology adopted by Mohammad Reza Shah's Government, and to what extent did the
fundamental functions of this ideological system help in recreating the legitimacy of the Pahlavi
Government? is research studies this subject through historical and descriptive-analytic
methods of investigation. is study concludes that according to the records, the Pahlavi Government
used some elements such as the White Revolution, Imperial Nationalism, secularism,
pseudo-nativism, pseudo-religiousness and pseudo-pro-democracy to create this ideology
during 1960's and 70’s. e ideology was not a practical success in supporting the legitimacy of
the Pahlavi Government and solving its legitimacy crisis, since it did not meet the real requirements
of society and was not in compliance with global developments. It also lacked internal
consistency and appropriateness in its miscellaneous and incompatible elements. e Pahlavi
Government was emphasizing nationalism a er the nationalism era had ended
