Political System Of The Islamic Republic Of Iran (1979 To 2012)

The dissertation analyzes the political system of Iran since the Islamic Revolution. The time frame of analysis runs from1979until2012. Theoretically, this study combines Neo-institutionism theory with studies on Iran’s political system. Methodologically, the study is based on history, literature, newspaper articles and original documents. The analysis is structured into "the theory" and "the framework" of Iran’s political system, which for methodological reason are separated in different historical phrases.Chapter1deals with the theoretical framework of this dissertation. Here the meanings of insititution and political system are defined. It further discusses the neo-institutionism theory, their strengths and weaknesses when applied to the Iran’s political system.The Islamic Revolution caused a fundamental change in the political system of Iran, which secular oriented members were replaced by mainly the clergy and religious laypersons. Chapter2analyzes the formal (state institutions and semi-govermental institutions) and informal (political factions) power structures in the Islamic Republic of Iran since the Islamic Revolution. Five characteristics of Iran’s political system are concluded in this Chapter.As can be seen in Chapter3, although the victory of the revolution seems to be a basic reason for adopting "theocracy" in Iran, while after Iran-Iraq war, political isolation, economic sanction, the nuclear issue and election crisis, the reason why such a political system can still make progress and keep effective should be studied further. This chapter discusses the historical roots of the establishment and development of this political system in terms of traditional political thoughts of ancient Persian, religious thoughts of Shi’i Islam, thoughts on modernization from western countries and failures of the other reforms.Chapter4and Chapter5analyze the establishment, consolidation and reformation of Iran’s political system under the different situations. They focus on the theory and the framework of political system since the establishment of Islamic Republic of Iran, the intellectual debates on demorcracy and role of the clergy in politics.Since the practices of politics play an important role in political system, Chapter6discusses the tenth presidential election of Iran as a case study, in which the relationship between dominance of supreme leader and people’s vote is analyzed.The study aims to contribute to a better understanding of Iran since the Islamic Revolution. The Iranian society is a complex one that cannot simply be defined as "fundamentalist" or "backward oriented", just because its political regime is based on politicized religion. Islamic regime until now has been able to keep political stability at home and Iran’s political system is still in the process of development, so this make it very difficult to get a clear picture of whether this system is eventually successful or doomed to fail.On the basis of the studies above, the dissertation draws a conclusion on Iran’s political system in terms of legitimacy and efficiency:1. Although Iran’s political system is facing chanllenges from "within and outside", the Islamic regime still has legitimacy among the majority of the people. The reform movement will focus on restricting the power of supreme leader and strengthening the role of republic institutions.2. As the efficiency of political system is concerned, strong state institutions are only useful to counter chanllenges and threats from within in the short term. They do not creat enthusiasm for the political regime. Demanding of democracy and modernity from the civil society provide motivation of reform under the framework of political system. Theoretical innovation and structural revision are considerd to be the main tasks of Iran’s political development in the future.