The 1979 Islamic Revolution has become for Western scholars and native Islamists alike the defining event of the Iranian experience. Shrouded in the garb of political Islam, the revolution represents to the American mind a step backward into a future of pre-industrial authoritarianism rejection of modernity. This thesis asserts that the cycles of Iranian social and political upheaval are in fact outgrowths of changes in the state's socio-political structure resulting from a transition in the mode of production and subsequent capitalization of the economy. The resulting attempts by an emerging middle class to balance political with economic viability consequently produced a series of structural corrections beginning with the Constitutional Revolution of 1906. While not the culminating event of Iranian societal development, the 1979 Islamic Revolution represents an opportunity for middle class hegemony. The direct outcome of the Islamic Revolution-the circulation of elites, is likely to evolve into a power-sharing arrangement in which the interests of the modern middle class dominate. As a recognizably populist event, the Islamic Revolution ultimately represents Iran's path into the world.