While a variety of simulation exercises are available for introductory American
politics and international relations courses, teachers of introductory comparative politics
courses find fewer appropriate models to deploy. This paper explores the use of mock
trials to introduce students to the ideology and practices of totalitarian governments, and
to the dilemmas faced by citizens seeking to be politically engaged in a totalitarian state. I
draw on my experiences teaching an introductory comparative politics class in which the
students conducted a simulated trial, placing the book Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar
Nafisi on trial for crimes against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
I argue that mock trials can be invaluable for engaging students in a deeper
understanding of the nature of totalitarianism. The workings of the trial revealed the
preeminence of the totalitarian state in defining and enforcing codes of ‘morality’ and
obliged students to confront how the totalitarian state seeks to dissolve the boundaries
between public and private spheres, redefining all behavior and thought in terms of
revolutionary ideology. Furthermore, students were compelled to respond to ‘courtroom’
norms that at times appeared arbitrary but uncontestable, requiring them to negotiate the
conditions of anxiety and uncertainty that totalitarian states frequently produce among
their citizens. Finally, students developed an understanding of the goals and ideals of the
Iranian revolution and of supporters of the Islamic Republic, as well as of contemporary
dissidents and reformers.
I begin by describing the pedagogical goals of a mock trial and outlining the
structure of the simulation. I discuss the progress of the exercise in the classroom,
focusing on the strategies of the prosecution and defense and on the impact of various
characteristics of the totalitarian state on these strategies. Based on students’ critiques of
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Convention