Homa Katouzian offers a groundbreaking theoretical framework for the study of Modern Iranian history. In the model, he proposes, Katouzian identifies a cycle of arbitrary rule leading to chaos, resulting in a further period of arbitrary rule, degenerating once more into chaos, and so on. The ebb and flow between the despotism of Naser al-din Shah, the confusion and turmoil of the Constitutional Revolution and the late Qajar period, the tough one-man-rule of Reza Shah, the ramshackle democracy and vacuum following World War II, the centralism of Mohammed Reza Shah underpinned by SAVAK, the brief flowering of democracy around the Islamic Revolution, only to culminate in the stern arbitrariness of rule guided by the hubris of an Islamic leader (first Khomeini then Khamene'i) - all bear out the author's thesis with uncanny accuracy. "State and Society in Iran" is crucial reading not only for those interested in the history of modern Iran but also for all students of political science concerned with the developing world.