۱.
This article attempts to explain democratization in Iran through an elite-oriented approach. According to this approach, the success and failure of democratization depends on the political elite strategy. My argument is that the fate of democratization is determined by elite strategies. If their strategy is considered suppressive, an authoritarian cycle will take place in the transition stage, but if the political elite strategy is considered non-suppressive, the index of democratic transition increases. In this study, the political elites are divided into two groups: conservatives and reformists. The analysis method is historical-narrative technique. The empirical findings indicate that whenever the hardliners inside the government are stronger than the opposition groups, they constrain the democratization by suppressing the opposition (moderates and reformists), which leads to a decrease in the index of democratic transition, as exemplified in the 13 th parliamentary in 1941. Whenever the reformers are stronger than the conservatives and they are allowed to participate in elections, the index of democratic transition tends to increase, as shown in the 17 th parliament under the rule of Mușaddiq and the 7 th presidential elections after the 1979 Revolution. The data demonstrates that democratization is still fragile in Iran and it’s the fate would be determined by the relative power of reformists and conservatives. As a result, I argue that Iran’s democratic transition is fragile and it’s the fate is determined by the relative power of reformists and conservatives.
۲.
The present paper is an attempt to reveal the typical difficulties to which are confronted translators of every sacred text. So, the authors of this research paper try to precise the meaning-form relations which arise from a corpus of the eighteen final surahs of the holy Quran. For this purpose, two translations of the holy book (those of Jacques Berque and Hamidullah), the most attested and credible, have been chosen and studied in this research to determine the tendencies which deform the source text while translating and which leads to different outputs. By this way, the present work will show the impact of the moderation to find out the right way between the fidelity to the form and the loyalty to the meaning.
۳.
Frequent quizzes followed by feedback on students’ strengths and weaknesses may enhance learning. Hence, the possible effect of weekly quizzes on language learning might be of interest in Iranian EFL context, especially in high schools. In order to understand the importance of weekly short quizzes, 88 students from four classes of high school second graders were selected through available sampling to form the experimental and control groups. The treatment went for twelve weeks during which the experimental group received 10 weekly quizzes while the control group did not have any quizzes. The study was carried out through a pretest- posttest- delayed posttest control- experimental intact groups. The results, analysed through Mixed Models ANOVA, revealed that both within and between group’s differences were in favour of the experimental group. It is safe to claim that weekly quizzes improve students’ performance on vocabulary and the effect of the treatment is durable.
۴.
Kuh-e Khajeh in Sistan, a mesa 120m height in respect of Sistan plain flat, is located 20 Km south-west of Zabol. This is one of most important historical area in Sistan. In account of its religious and political importance, a series remarkable of structures were built on its flat surface and eastern slight slopes since very ancient times. Despite of the studies of archaeologists and scholars, there have been provided no certain chronology about it and a few studies which have been done are merely based on the architecture of this site. In this research, based on the pottery data it is tried to make a relative chronology on palace of Kuh-e Khajeh. In doing so, the required data was gathered under systematic survey method in the castle’s area. Considering that the recognizing the potteries’ specifications is an important task in the archaeological studies, therefore, the study of potteries’ specifications was given a specific priority. And in doing so, the collected remarkable potteries from the site were classified and typologically studied, accordingly. According to the results obtained from the typology of potteries, Kuh-e Khajeh palace has had three different settlement phases: the first was Parthians, the second was Sassanids and the third was known to be the Islamic phase (6-8 AH centuries), respectively.
۵.
At first glance, myths are considered as the old stories but, the truth is that they are the product of a way of man’s wise thinking which have survived in the form of narration and action. Ad the myths answer to the man’s needs of world-knowing , they continue living, in the modern world and by the help of science, through accordance with the mental frames of man. One of the newest fields that benefiting from its capacities help in myth renovation is internet technology. The spread of this wide web has changed it to a modern environment. The subject of digital body in this new environment and its capacities on achieving the collective goals set the ground for the formation of mythical meanings and concepts which challenge the scientific wisdom. Therefore, this research analyzes the capacities of this media in developing the new mythical concepts based on the contemporary myth theory of Roland Barrett and the mythical analysis of Louie Straus . The method is descriptive-analytic and based on the library resources. The results revel that in this modern environment, reality, idealism and fantasy are interwoven in the form of old archetypes and have changed the validity of many concepts. Thinking about Creation, escape from prohibition, simultaneous presence, excess of time and place, unified world, dominance over loneliness and the wishes that came true through the myths, now form a modern thinking horizon in a vital, interactive and experimental environment which renovates the myths inside this worldwide web.
۶.
The peace and looking for ways to keep it have been one of the most essential obsessions of the human beings throughout the history. Creation of regional or international organizations is considered as a way to peace building and keeping. In fact, one of the causes of transformation of international organization after the Cold War has been settlement of peace and security. The role of international organizations in order to settle conflicts is more vital and important, because most of these organizations have the ability and legitimacy to play an important role in this regard. In this regard, this article using descriptive- analytic method is intended to investigate the question: “why after the Cold War we have witnessed lower conflicts and tensions in the South East Asia than Middle East, Central Asia, Caucasus and Africa?” Research findings show that ASEAN has had an effective role in peace building and peace keeping through creating norms and regimes of peaceful settlement of disputes and strengthening interdependency, and even it has been successful to make a security community. .
