Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McGill University. / Written for the Dept. of Political Science. Typescript. Bibliography: leaves 453-489.

Is it an activity qualified as torture only when it is carried out for certain purposes? At the heart of the debate lies the question of whether or not corporal punishment is a form of torture. Aspects of corporal punishment remain acceptable according certain religious traditions. An example of this is found in traditional Islamic law, which has banned both torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, when used for the express purpose of obtaining confessions or information. In other circumstances, however, severe corporal punishment is acceptable in Islamic law. As a result, some Islamic states whose domestic law is rooted in traditional Islamic law, justify their use of torture by invoking Islamic traditions: they claim that corporal punishment is derived from God's will. These states tend to consider its use as lawful sanctions, and it is made legal under their domestic law. In this paper, Iran is studied as one such state.

In this dissertation, I undertake an empirical analysis of Iranian punitive practices over the last century. In thiscontext, I set out to investigate three issues. First, I critically examine the claim that modernity is characterizedby a diminution of corporal punishments, considering both the older humanist-progressivist verions of this claim and therevisionist-Nietzschean versions that have been advanced by several scholars including Michel Foucault, David Rothman,Michael Ignatieff, John Langbein, Gerhard Oestreich and Marc Raeff. In particular, I examine the relationship betweenmodern torture and might be called the "disciplinary process" that is said to characterize modernization. Second, I evaluate Chomsky and Herman's hypothesis that developing societies are characterized by a specific economy of violence that might be described as "state terrorism." Third, I test the utility of Foucault's theoretical approach to the study of power. / Dans cette these, j'entreprends une analyse empirique des coutumes punitives iraniennes depuis un siecle. A cette fin, j'examine trois aspects. Premierement, j'examine d'une maniere critique le point de vue suivant lequel, la modernite se caracterise par une diminution des punitions physiques, tout en considerant l'interprétation traditionnelle humanistico-progressive de ce point de vue et les interpretations Nietzscheo-revisionnistes qui ont ete suggerees par plusieurs penseurs, tels que Michel Foucault, David Rothman, Michael Ignatieff, John Langbein, Gerhard Oestreich, et Marc Raeff. Plus precisement j'examine la relation entre la torture au XXieme siecle et ce que l'on pourrait appeler le "processus disciplinaire" qui, soi-disant, caracterise la modernisation. Deuxiemement, j'évalue les hypothèses de Noam Chomsky et d'Edward Herman suivant lesquelles les sociétés en voie de développement sont caractérisées par la violence d'une manière bien précise, et qui pourrait etre decrite comme "une économie de terrorisme d'état." Troisièmement, j'examine l'utilité de l'approche théorique de Michel Foucault pour l'etude du pouvoir. fr

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