Abstract
This article explores one of the reasons which have prevented the civil society to be grown in contemporary Iran. Since every society has specific history and mutations, in this research, historical sociology approach is used. This approach, explored by many sociologists such as Max Weber, is widely used for understanding social and political structure in various countries and cultures. This article explores one of the main reasons of limitation of civil society in Iran, related to patrimonial culture and personal rulership in pre modern and modern Iran consecutively. In pre modern Iran there wasn’t any law and everything referred to patrimonial ruler without having any limitation in power. After the emergence of modern state in Iran, patrimonial type of domination was reborn with a new face. Here it was the personal ruler ship which controlled all social groups and institutions; and civil society was too limited at this time.