Sovereignty, Authority, and Power

• Iran has been a sovereign state since at least 625 b.c.e., when it was known as the Achaemenid Empire (called the Persian Empire by rival Greece).

• Since then, Persians have been sovereign under various regimes.

• The 1979 Islamic Revolution and its Constitution legitimize Iran today.

• Iran's political processes are becoming institutionalized and formalized after Ayatollah Khomeini's charismatic leadership.

• Iran is a constitutional republic with theocratic religious institutions supervising elected republican institutions.

Geographic Influences on Political Culture

• Iran occupies a vast plateau thousands of feet higher than its neighbors.

• Early Persians conquered neighboring territories because Iran has little arable land.

• Persians the largest ethnic group in Iran

• Iran never became a colony or satellite state during the major eras of European colonization, while its Middle Eastern and Asian neighbors were either colonized directly or controlled indirectly by Britain or France.

Components of Iranian Political Culture

• Authoritarian, but not Totalitarian: Iran’s history has long-running themes of authoritarian political leadership, but not totalitarianism.

• Union of Political and Religious Leadership: In the ancient empire, Zoroastrianism was established as the official religion.

  • Zoroastrianism the official religion of ancient Persia; now a protected minority religion in modern Iran

• Shari’ah Law: The Shari’ah is an Islamic legal system based on the religious principles of Islam, especially those expressed in the Koran, Islam’s holy text, which Muslims believe was verbally revealed to the prophet Muhammad.

  • Shari’ah a system of law based on the principles of Islam

  • Koran the holy text of Islam believed by Muslims to have been dictated by God to the Prophet Muhammad

• West vs. East: Since the early rivalry between Greece and Persia, Iran has long been positioned as a middle-eastern power resistant to Western influence.

Political and Economic Change

• The tension between ancient traditions and modernization is evident in changes that have occurred in Iran’s regime over time.

• Iran’s modern history can be broken into four eras: three of which were dynastic, and the modern post-revolutionary regime.

The Safavid Empire (1501–1736)

• Shi'ites and Sunnis divided Iran's Muslim population.

• Shi’ites a sect of Islam that believes the hereditary heirs of the Prophet Muhammad are the rightful leaders and guardians of the Islamic faith; the dominant sect among Iranian Muslims

• Sunnis a sect of Islam that believes the chosen caliphate constitutes the rightful leaders and guardians of the Islamic faith; a majority of Muslims globally but an unrecognized minority in Iran

• After Muhammad's death in 632, Shi'as and Sunnis disagreed over who should lead the faith: Ali, Muhammad's hereditary heir, or Abu Bakr, his closest advisor and friend.

• After conquering Persia in 1501, the Safavids forced all of their subjects to convert to Twelver Shi'ism, which teaches that the twelfth descendant of Muhammad, who mysteriously disappeared, will return to judge the world and destroy evil.

• Twelver Shi’ism a sect of Islam whose adherents believe that the twelfth descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, who disappeared mysteriously, will return to establish a perfect world

• Shah the ruling monarch of Iran prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1979

• Today, Iran is over 90% Shi'a.

• The Safavid shah did not rule absolute.

• Early "checks and balances" prevented power abuse, establishing authoritarian rule without totalitarianism.

• Civil law (qanun) laws regarding any issues unrelated to doctrines or teachings of Islam

The Qajar Dynasty (1794–1925)

• Qajar Dynasty Turkish conquerors who ruled Persia from 1794 through 1925

• After the Safavids' fall, the Qajars, a powerful Turkish-descended family, took power in 1794.

• The Qajars could not rule by heredity like the Safavids because they were Turks.

• Shi'a descendants of Muhammad claimed the right to interpret Islam, leading to church-state separation.

• Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1909 uprising that resulted in the creation of Iran’s first constitution and of both the Majlis and Guardian Council as new legislative institutions to check the power of the executive

• Majlis Iran’s national legislature, elected by voters every four years and empowered to make laws that are not religious in nature and to pass the budget every year

• Guardian Council a body of twelve officials, chosen by the Supreme Leader and the Chief Judge, empowered to reject candidates for office and veto legislation passed by the Majlis if it conflicts with Shari’ah law

• Expediency Council a collection of leading Iranian officials gathered for the purpose of settling disputes between the Majlis and the Guardian Council

The Pahlavi Dynasty (1925–1979)

• In 1921, Colonel Reza Khan, leader of the Cossack Brigade, overthrew the Qajar monarchy and became Reza Shah Pahlavi, the new shah.

• Reza Shah was an absolute monarch who gradually weakened the Majlis until it was no longer a political check.

• Coup d’état (coup) the seizure of control of the state apparatus by the military

• Reza Shah ordered foreign embassies to use Iran instead of "Persia" in 1935.

• In the 1930s, the Shah increasingly aligned his foreign policy with Germany to thwart Britain and Russia, but in 1941, Britain and Russia declared war on Germany and invaded Iran.

• Muhammad Reza Shah succeeded the shah after he was forced to abdicate.

• Iran became increasingly rentier during this time.

• Instead of collecting taxes from its citizens, the state mostly rented oil drilling rights to foreign corporations.

• Paying no taxes may seem like a bargain, but it harms democratization and civil society.

• Foreign firms and U.S. arms kept the government in power.

• It didn't need or want the Iranian people's support, and it had enough money to suppress their dissent if they rebelled.

• Tudeh Party a left-wing communist party opposed to the rule of the Shah that was banned after 1956

• National Front a nationalist party that briefly held power In the Majlis and advocated nationalization of Iran’s natural resources; its leaders were driven out in 1956 by Operation Ajax

• Operation Ajax a covert operation by the United States in 1956 that discredited the National Front and restored support for the Shah’s rule

• Rentier state a country with a valuable natural resource that, by funding state operations through selling or renting rights to extract the resource to foreign companies or countries, creates a reliance on that resource to sustain the economy and the state’s functions

• White Revolution a program of reforms by the Shah meant to undermine support for leftist and communist parties; it provided benefits to peasants and encouraged westernization in certain areas of Iranian culture

• Resurgence Party a political party created by the Shah of Iran in 1975 to serve as the dominant party in a one-party state

The Islamic Revolution of 1979

• There were several major factors that led to the Islamic Revolution.

  • Alienation of the Shi’a clerics and the religious community through forced westernization

  • Alienation of Iranian liberals opposed to social injustice of the lavish lifestyle of the elites, and the increasingly autocratic nature of the regime

  • Overly ambitious promises made during the White Revolution to deliver prosperity to more Iranians that could not be fulfilled

  • Rising Iranian nationalism opposed to the influence of Britain and the United States

  • A sharp and sudden economic contraction from 1977 to 1978, which drove working-class Iranians to go on strike and take to the streets in protest

  • Charismatic leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, a leading cleric, to unite religious, liberal, and working-class forces together against the regime

• Qom a city south of Tehran where most of Iran’s major seminaries and leading clerics are located

• Iranian (Islamic) Revolution of 1979 a series of mass demonstrations against the Shah that resulted in his deposal, followed by the creation of a new Islamic Republic, led by Ayatollah Khomeini

The Islamic Republic Under Khomeini (1979–1989)

• Iran's Assembly of Religious Experts was elected to write a new constitution.

• Khomeini's 1970s book on government formed the basis of the final product.

• The constitution's jurist guardianship concept held that Islam's top interpreters, such as Khomeini, were responsible for all aspects of Iranian society.

• The Supreme Leader, chosen by the Assembly of Religious Experts, would use Shari'ah law to rule the political system.

• In a referendum, 99 percent of Iranians approved the constitution.

The Islamic Republic After Khomeini (1989–present)

• Assembly of Religious Experts an elected body of senior clerics who are empowered to review the performance of the Supreme Leader and to remove or choose a replacement for him

• Jurist guardianship the concept, justifying clerical rule, espoused by Ayatollah Khomeini that Shi’a clerics hold responsibility over all aspects of society

• Supreme Leader Iran’s head of state and most powerful chief executive, known as the chief interpreter of Shari’ah law

• Due to a rebound in oil prices, which stabilized the economy, and Iraq's invasion, which galvanized national support for the new regime, the clerics had consolidated power by 1989, when Khomeini died of ill health.

• Cultural revolution (Iran) Khomeini’s program to rid the country of Western and secular influences and produce a purer commitment to Islam

• Hostage crisis of 1979–1980 the seizure of the American embassy by students loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini; the American diplomatic staff was held hostage for 444 days

• Before the revolution, Khomeini believed that one of the marja, leading Shia scholars, should become the Supreme Leader.

• Near his death, Khomeini was unhappy with any of the marja, so Iran's constitution was changed to allow one of his lieutenants, Ali Khamenei, to succeed him, even though he was less academically qualified.

• After Khomeini's death, the Assembly of Religious Experts elected Khamenei Supreme Leader in 1989.

• Mohammad Khatami (1997–2005): Khatami’s presidency is often referred to as the “Tehran Spring” due to his reform program.

  • “Tehran Spring” a term referring to the reduced restrictions in Iran on freedom of speech and the press during the government of President Khatami (1997–2005)

• Mohammad Ahmadinejad (2005–2013): Ahmadinejad was a conservative mayor of Tehran known for reversing liberal reforms in the city, and he carried that record into the presidency.

• Hassan Rouhani (2013–PRESENT): Rouhani was characterized as a more reformist candidate than his opponents during the 2013 election.

• Foundations (bonyads): institutions now managing large state-owned enterprises that were created after the Islamic Revolution to manage property confiscated from the prerevolution elites

• Marja: leading Shi’a clerics who were eligible to become Supreme Leader until reforms in 1989 opened the selection to a wider pool of clerics

Citizens, Society, and the State

• Iranians lack democracy and civil society experience.

• Authoritarianism has suppressed the cradle of civilization under various guises.

• The current regime's religious restrictions limit civil society's formation, but globalization and technology have liberalized Iran since the Constitutional Revolution.

Significant Social Cleavages

Ethnicity

• Iran's majority ethnicity is Persian, at 61%.

• Azeris: concentrated in the northwest, are Iran's largest minority at 16%.

  • 10% are western Kurds.

  • Azer:i the largest minority ethnic group in Iran

• Arabs, Balochs, Turkmen, and Lurs are present.

• The constitution declares Persian (Farsi) the official language, but minorities can use their own language in private.

• Most ethnic political issues in Iran involve minorities seeking greater rights and integration into Iranian society, not ethnic separation.

• Azeris, who are mostly Shi'a, are better integrated than other minorities and participate more in Iranian high-level politics than other non-Persians.

• The Supreme Leader, Khameini, and 2009 presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi were Azeris. Even as cabinet members, the Rouhani government promised to involve ethnic minorities in political decisions and maintain language protections for minority schools.

• Iranian minorities are concerned that these languages were suppressed in schools that were required to teach in Persian.

Social Class

• Social class divides urban-rural regions.

• Urban Iranians are more educated, middle class, and westernized.

• Iranians in the countryside and lower-middle class have benefited more from the regime's nationalization and redistribution of economic policies than the urban and educated middle class, who lost most of their property and investment value in the revolutionary regime's turmoil and global isolation.

• As a result, most middle- and high-class Iranians in cities support reformist candidates, while rural Iranians support conservatives and theocracy.

• Middle-class, educated Iranians are likely to criticize the regime.

• Since the 1990s, 25% of Iranians with college degrees have left the country to live in the developed world, costing Iran $50 billion in human capital.

Generation

• After the revolution, the new regime promoted large families through religious doctrine and direct benefits to citizens based on family size.

• In the 1990s, economic pressures led to birth control and sex education policies.

• Over half the population is under 35 and politically active.

• Young Iranians worry about joblessness and religious restrictions on self-expression, while older Iranians who lived under the shah support the current regime.

• Iran's youth unemployment rate is over 70%.

• In 1997 and 2001, reformist candidates won the presidency and legislative majorities with large youth votes.

• The youth boycotted the 2004 elections after the Guardian Council rejected nearly all reformist candidates, helping Ahmadinejad take power.

• The 2009 return of the youth vote changed Iranian politics.

Religion

• This course's most religious nation is Iran. About 90% of Iranians are Shi'a and 9% Sunni.

• Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians are religious minorities under the constitution and should be respected, but authorities have harassed, intimidated, discriminated, and persecuted all religious minorities, including Sunnis.

• Baha’i a minority religion in Iran, unrecognized by Iran’s constitution and persecuted in Iranian society, that teaches that God speaks to all people through all religions in different ways

• Many examples exist of state-sanctioned Baha'i persecution.

• The state took all Baha'i property in 1979 and hasn't returned it.

• The law says only Muslim plaintiffs can sue for compensation, so Baha'i victims cannot.

• They are often denied public university admission or jobs due to their faith.

• Baha'is can only bury their dead in unmarked graves in government-approved wastelands.

Forms of Political Participation

Civil Society

• The 1979 Iranian Revolution was fueled by anger over the state's intrusion into private life, particularly its secularization of religious groups.

• Post-revolution, the state still imposes religious values on secular institutions.

• The "brain drain" of intellectuals and trained professionals from Iran is often attributed to this and a lack of economic opportunity.

• From 1997 to 2005, President Khatami's liberalizing reforms helped civil society form, but President Ahmadinejad mostly reversed them.

• During Khatami's "Tehran Spring," women's groups demanded more rights, but public policy didn't change.

• Iran's constitution allows free association as long as it doesn't "violate the criteria of Islam, or the basis of the Islamic Republic."

• Iran permits government oversight of NGOs.

• Unions, teachers, human rights groups, lawyers, doctors, women, academics, and journalists are all suppressed in Iran.

Protests

• Iran's constitution protects freedom of assembly and expression, but only if it doesn't violate the criteria of Islam, or the basis of the Islamic Republic."

• Frustrated liberals are increasingly protesting the regime.

• The state usually cracks down on protesters rather than compromising.

• The Green Movement has emerged most recently.

• Green Movement a protest movement originating after many Iranians believed that the official results of the 2009 election were fraudulent

Political Institutions

• Theocracy defines Iranian politics.

• Iran's political institutions must support the clergy's spiritual leadership.

• The clerical elite restricts linkage institutions to preserve community spirituality.

• Senior clerics oversee democratic state institutions.

Linkage Institutions

Political Parties

• Iranian political parties change frequently.

• They are often civil society organizations that run candidates in elections.

• When their leader or major personality runs for president, many parties field candidates in one election cycle and then disappear in the next.

• A president may win election with one party and run for reelection with a different party.

• Reformist political factions in Iran that seek to build productive relationships with the West and support limited secularization and modernization of Iranian society

• Conservative (Iran) a member of a political faction that opposes modernization and secularization and seeks to preserve the theocracy of the Islamic Republic

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ran with the Islamic Society of Engineers (ISE) in 2005 and the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran (ABII) in 2009.

  • When he first ran, Green Movement leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi had no political party behind him.

• The Moderation and Development Party (MDP), which has only existed since 1999, ran Rouhani for president for the first time in 2013.

Elections

• Iranians directly elect the president, Majlis, and Assembly of Religious Experts (the democratic institutions).

• Iranians cannot choose the Supreme Leader, Guardian Council, or Expediency Council (the theocratic institutions).

Presidential Election

• A two-ballot majority elects Iran's president every four years.

• The winner of a runoff between the top two candidates takes office if no candidate wins a majority in the first round.

• After two four-year terms, presidents cannot run again.

• Iran has more open and competitive elections than its Middle Eastern neighbors.

• Importantly, presidential candidates are limited.

• The Guardian Council can screen candidates and reject those they don't like, even though the constitution allows any "pious" Iranian over 18 to run.

• The 1997 Guardian Council rejected 234 candidates and allowed four to run.

• Six candidates out of 1,600 who filed for office in 2017 were approved.

• The Guardian Council rejects many of these candidates because they are not "well-known political figures," but they are not required to explain their decisions and often appear to be trying to limit election outcomes to favor the clergy.

Majlis Elections

• The Majlis (Islamic Consultative Assembly) is elected every four years before a presidential election.

• Iran has 290 single-member-district (SMD) constituencies that elect a member in a first-past-the-post plurality system.

• A candidate must receive at least 25% to win, otherwise a second round of voting is required.

• Fourteen seats are reserved for candidates from minority religion areas of the country, but all remaining seats must be Shia.

Assembly of Religious Experts Elections

• Voters directly elect the Assembly of Religious Experts every eight years.

• To verify academic qualifications, the Guardian Council interviews and writes tests for candidates.

• Until 2006, only clerics could run for the office.

• A reform to unify Majlis and Assembly of Religious Experts election dates extended the Assembly's last term from 2007 to 2017, rather than the usual eight years (so that both elections occurred in 2016).

Interests Groups

• Iran's interest groups, political parties, and civil society organizations blur.

• Many parties with controversial candidates are banned, only to reappear as interest groups or operate in secret.

• Iran's weak civil society is not controlled by a corporatist model.

• Iran lacks organized groups, making it less pluralist and corporatist than other societies.

• Due to 1980s nationalization, the government controls most of the economy, but agriculture, professional trades, and labor unions are the most common private interests that organize group political action.

• Private business interests are a small part of the Iranian economy and even less involved in politics.

The Media

• Iran prioritizes media management.

• All media is heavily censored, despite a mix of privately and state-owned outlets.

• Any media outlet that publishes antireligious, slanderous, or national-interest-harmful content may lose its license.

• Viewership is less diverse than media ownership.

• Over 80% of Iranians get their news from state-owned media, which supports the clergy and Supreme Leader.

• Reporters Without Borders claims Iran has the most imprisoned journalists in the Middle East.

• Globalization is affecting Iranian information access.

• 40–70% of Iranians watch satellite TV despite the ban.

State Institutions

• Iran's state institutions can be divided into those that run government service and administration (the president and the Majlis) and those that preserve the revolutionary state's theocratic nature and spiritual purity (the Supreme Leader, the Assembly of Religious Experts, the Guardian Council, and the Expediency Council).

• Remember the distinction between elected institutions (the president, Majlis, and Assembly of Religious Experts) and unelected or appointed institutions (the Supreme Leader, Guardian Council, and Expediency Council).

The Supreme Leader

• The Supreme Leader is considered the chief jurist, the leading interpreter of Islamic law (the Shari’ah) for the Shia people.

• In the Iranian constitution of 1979, he is given the power to:

  • Dismiss the president or members of the Guardian Council for any reason

  • Command all branches of the Iranian military

  • Declare war and peace

  • Appoint administrators and judges at all levels of Iranian government

  • Choose six of the twelve members of the Guardian Council

  • Appoint heads of all state-owned enterprises, including media outlets

  • The Supreme Leader would function as Iran’s symbolic head of state, but he is vested with real and significant powers, far greater than the head of government, the president.

The Guardian Council

• The Guardian Council exerts a number of major powers crucial to the preservation of the theocratic nature of the Iranian state.

• They have the power to:

  • Reject any law passed by the Majlis if it is contradictory to the constitution or principles of Islam, and send it back for correction

  • Reject candidates for the presidency or Majlis based on their interpretation of the qualifications in the constitution

  • Administer a test and interview candidates for the Assembly of Religious Experts, and determine what “threshold” will be applied for allowing candidates on the ballot or not

The Expediency Council

• The Expediency Council was established in 1988 to resolve Majlis-Guardian Council disputes.

• The Majlis can "correct" a Guardian Council-rejected law.

• If they cannot reach an agreement with the Guardian Council, the Expediency Council resolves the dispute.

• The Supreme Leader chooses the Expediency Council every five years, but it automatically includes the president, Majlis speaker, Chief Judge, government ministers, and Majlis committee members responsible for the topic being debated.

The Assembly and Religious Experts

• After passing a Guardian Council test, 88 voters directly elect the Assembly of Religious Experts.

• Only male clerics have been elected.

• The Assembly of Religious Experts must meet at least twice every six months by law, but their purpose is unclear.

• They don't govern or make laws.

• They can remove or appoint the Supreme Leader.

The President

• The president is the head of government, possessing many administrative powers, but his actions are always under the shadow of the Supreme Leader, who may dismiss him from office at any moment he chooses.

• The president has the power to:

  • Devise the budget for approval of the Majlis

  • Propose legislation to the Majlis

  • Nominate cabinet members for approval of the Majlis

  • Chair meetings of the cabinet, the National Security Council, and the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution

  • Send and receive foreign ambassadors

  • Issue executive orders

  • Issue pardons for crimes

The Majlis

• The Majlis acts as Iran’s unicameral legislative assembly, though its laws must keep the approval of the Guardian Council.

• The Majlis has the power to:

  • Introduce and pass legislation (although most is proposed by the president)

  • Approve the six members of the Guardian Council nominated by the Chief Judge

  • Investigate corruption and misconduct in the bureaucracy and judiciary

  • Approve the president’s choices for cabinet, and remove cabinet members

  • Approve the budget devised by the president

The Bureaucracy

• The Iranian bureaucracy employs millions.

• Iranian bureaucracy manages many large state-owned enterprises and monitors information for the theocracy in addition to law approval and enforcement.

• The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in Iran restricts commercial, artistic, and political media deemed problematic.

• Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance Iranian government agency charged with censoring media deemed to be un-Islamic

The Judiciary

• Iran’s legal system is divided into two types of law.

  • Shari’ah: Shari’ah acts as the supreme law of the system, as interpreted by the Supreme Leader and the Guardian Council.

    • No laws at any level may contradict a principle of the Shari’ah.

  • Civil Law (Qanun): Civil law has no basis in sacred texts or Shari’ah interpretation, and it covers all aspects of modern life regarding business contracts, labor standards, the environment, and anything else not perceived as needing religious interpretation.

    • The Majlis would be the main body enacting civil law, provided it does not contradict the Shari’ah.

• Khomeini believed that Shari'ah required local judges to decide cases, so the Iranian judiciary rarely uses its appeals hierarchy.

• The Supreme Leader appoints the Chief Judge to a five-year term as court administrator rather than judge.

• The Supreme Leader and Guardian Council interpret the Shari'ah, so Iranian courts cannot review it.

Public Policy

• Iran continues to experience the internal tension between the conservative values of the regime, and the desire of a young, urban, middle class to modernize and liberalize.

• These tensions are visible in the public policy debates in the country.

Gender

• The place of women in Iranian society is a tense debate in the country.

• The shah’s westernizing and liberalizing policies with regard to women were of particular concern to the conservative clergy.

• After the Revolution, women were no longer allowed to initiate a divorce except under very specific circumstances, and restrictions on contraception and abortion were put back into place.

• Of particular symbolic significance is the enforcement of the hijab, the hair-covering veil worn by Muslim women.

Economics and Oil

• Oil and gas account for over 60% of government revenue and almost 20% of GDP in Iran.

• This arrangement discourages Iran from diversifying its economy and slows development.

• The state owns most economic assets, including most large companies.

• Oil price drops or Western European economic sanctions cause major recessions in Iran.

Population

• The early Islamic regime encouraged large families by giving them more rationed goods per person.

• President Rafsanjani declared that “Islam favored families with only two children” in 1988, and the Health Ministry introduced family planning, contraceptives, and sex education.

• He was concerned that the state's dependence on oil would make the massive population increase unsustainable.

• Starting with the third child, the Majlis cut subsidies for large families in 1993.

  • The projected birth rate is less than two per woman, indicating great success in population control.

• In 2012, Khamenei called Iran's contraceptive services "wrong" and cut family planning funding, reversing 24 years of policy.

  • This policy change's effects are unknown.

Qom and Twelver Shi’ism

• Qom is a major seminary city located about eighty miles from Tehran, and most prominent Shi’a clerics teach and preach from the city.

• While there is broad agreement about many issues in Islam among Shi’a clerics, there is a growing debate over the structure of the regime itself.

• The Iranian constitution proclaims the doctrine of Twelver Shi’ism, asserting that the hidden Twelfth Imam will return one day to establish a perfect kingdom of justice on earth.

Foreign Relations and the Nuclear Program

• Iran’s long rivalry, suspicion, and separation from the West continue to drive the political debate over foreign relations in Iran.

  • Hostility between the United States and Iran plays out in battles over Iran’s nuclear program, economic sanctions levied against Iran by the West, and a proxy war Iran engaged in by supporting insurgent groups against the U.S. forces in Iraq after 2003.

• After the Islamic Revolution, chanting “Death to America” became a common feature of Friday prayers.

  • It has been suspended at times (such as after the September 11 attacks in New York City), and returned with renewed vigor at times (such as after George W. Bush asserted that Iran was part of an “axis of evil” in his 2002 State of the Union Address).