You have probably encountered views that suggest democracy requires cultural prerequisites and that society lacks these prerequisites culturally. To justify this view, various comparisons are made to belittle Iranian society compared to developed countries. From driving in heavy city traffic compared to driving conditions in Northern European countries, to the proposal of a per capita reading time for books in Iran, these are tools used to complete different aspects of this view.

This issue becomes more serious when, from the past until now, politicians with different tendencies have used this issue as a tool for their non-democratic rule. This means that they considered Iranian culture lacking in developmental elements and therefore conditional on their presence in power for development in Iran. Or they considered democratic culture a prerequisite for democracy and introduced their non-democratic rule as an enlightened despotism to create a democratic culture. This view is evident in the interview of Amir Abbas Hoveyda with Le Monde in 1973, where the last king of Iran declared Iranians lacking in the cultural capacity for democracy. Even today, we sometimes hear slogans in anti-government protests that have such foundations. In light of this, it is necessary to revisit the question: is democratization conditional on ensuring cultural prerequisites? And has our society acquired these prerequisites?

To examine this issue, we must first look at the initial question according to the opinions of democratic theorists. Among various opinions on democracy, there are different perspectives. We can divide these perspectives into three categories based on the issue we are examining. Firstly, some see democratization as the result of the actions of activists and political institutions. Secondly, they see democracy as the result of economic development and its impact on social, political, and other spheres. If these two perspectives consider cultural influences, they see it as a supportive or stabilizing factor for democracy. However, the third category, which we must examine, sees culture as the main factor or one of the main factors in democratization.

Some cultural perspectives consider certain components as cultural traits of democratic societies that cannot be easily verified due to their qualitative nature. For example, the existence of indicators such as pluralism, adaptability, moderation, inclusivity, inclination towards democracy and human rights, etc. are considered necessary for a country’s transition to democracy. However, other theorists have also put forward different perspectives that are easier to verify.

From the first perspectives that have been raised, democracy was considered a phenomenon related to Western culture and there was no chance for non-Western countries to transition to democracy. Over time, with the transition of some Asian countries to democracy, this theory gained very little popularity among intellectuals. It seemed that this perspective could no longer explain the political reality in the world. Some researchers belittled this perspective and considered Islamic countries to have cultural components that make democracy impossible. However, this perspective also faced a previous problem and the experience of democracy in some Islamic countries helped to invalidate it. In addition, researchers who paid more attention to the conditions of Islamic countries introduced factors such as natural resources, the actions of global powers, and internal politicians as the main obstacles.

One of the other theorists who considers culture and development as the main factors for the transition to democracy is Ronald Inglehart. He considers the Human Development Index as a quantitative tool for a country’s readiness to transition to democracy. In the Human Development Index, in addition to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as an economic component, education level and life expectancy are also calculated as multidimensional components – in which culture is also somewhat taken into account. According to this perspective, Iranian society has a high chance of transitioning to democracy. This is because the high level of education among Iranians and the improvement of healthcare conditions have led Iran to rank high on the Human Development Index, despite economic crises.

However, many criticize this view and argue that the increase in education levels in Iran cannot be considered a precise factor for cultural conditions, and with reference to the circulation of books from the past until now and common statistics on book reading per capita in the country, they believe that Iranians are regressing. First, it should be noted that we must compare the cultural level at the moment of transition to democracy in Western countries, and their current conditions cannot be used as a benchmark. With this perspective, the level of education, knowledge, and literacy in the United States at the time of independence and in Britain during the glorious revolution should be compared to Iran today.

But when it comes to per capita reading in Iran, there are a few points to consider. First, the statistics estimating daily per capita reading are not accurate or reliable due to their lack of scientific basis. Therefore, the low numbers that represent the level of reading in Iran compared to developed countries should be disregarded and attention should be paid to more reliable numbers. Second, the decrease in book circulation in recent years does not necessarily mean a decrease in reading among Iranians. In fact, contrary to popular belief, the increase in book diversity, which is a result of cultural and technological growth, has reduced the circulation of each book but greatly increased the overall diversity of books. As we can see, while the population of Iran has tripled in the past four decades, the diversity of published book titles has increased more than twenty-fold.

The speed and diversity of book translation in Iran also supports this point. In recent years, despite the fact that book translation has relatively low financial benefits, it has reached a point where within a few months of an English book’s publication, several reliable translations into Persian are released.

The level of reading Iranian books has not only improved compared to its past, but it also has favorable conditions on a global level. The statistics of the annual publication of book titles in Iran show that we have achieved a high rank among the top twenty countries. This statistic becomes even more remarkable when considering the ongoing economic crisis and comparing our country with other countries in the region. In addition, the diversity of book titles can help promote various perspectives on pluralism, tolerance, and other cultural components of democracy.

According to what has passed, if we consider democratization to have a cultural prerequisite, the cultural conditions of our society are not only undesirable for the transition to democracy, but also very suitable. Despite the need for cultural improvement, we should not pay attention to views that consider our society lacking the capacity for transition to democracy.