The Iranian Political Elite in 1997-2009. An Attempt to Mark the Political Field of the Second Islamic Republic

On 18 November 2009, at 18:00, the regular research seminar of the Political Sphere Institute will hold its next meeting in the courtyard of CSI.

Presentation topic: “The Iranian Political Elite in 1997-2009.

An Attempt to Mark the Political Field of the Second Islamic Republic”.

Speaker: Siarhei Bohdan; discussant: Andrei Yahorau.

All interested participants are invited.

For additional information about the venue, please contact [email protected] .

Presentation theses:
The aims of the presentation are to examine the specific features of the formation of the current Iranian political elite, to compare the situation with the country’s earlier history, to outline the main currents and groupings within Iran’s political elite, to examine the specific features of how the Iranian political elite is organized within formal and informal political organizations, and to identify promising directions for research.
1.

Formation
The complete elimination of the previous political elite as a result of the 1979 revolution.

The subsequent elimination of the right-wing and far-left currents of the anti-Shah opposition.

The consolidation of supporters of the Islamic Republic within the Islamic Republican Party and the Organization of Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution during the civil war and the war with Iraq in the 1980s.

The split within the camp of supporters of the Islamic Republic and its beginnings in the first half of the 1990s.
2.

Main features of the contemporary political elite
Specific features of the structure, composition, and functioning of Iran’s contemporary political elite in comparison with the monarchical period.

Specific groups: clerics; the ethnic and social composition of the Iranian political elite.

The role of ideology and the role of individuals in shaping currents and groupings.

The beginning of the division into “reformists”, “conservatives”, and “fundamentalists”; their place in the structure of state bodies and in society.

Khatami’s victory in the 1997 presidential election as the moment when a new constellation of forces in Iranian politics took shape and the beginning of the Second Islamic Republic.
The “left” and “right” of Iranian politics, and the changing meaning of these concepts over time.

The main political organizations of Iran.

The party as a type of political organization in Iran, and its main specific features (discrediting through the existence of the pro-Soviet communist party “Tudeh” and the sham parties created by the Shah).
3.

The fall of the contemporary political elite and of the Second Islamic Republic
The phenomenon of left conservatism, neo-fundamentalism, and Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad’s anti-elitism and the rupture between the government and the elites after Ahmadinejad was elected president in 2005. “The absence of elites”.

The rout of Iran’s political elites: the 2009 presidential election.

The model of elite change according to Ibn Khaldun.
4.

Prospects and problems in researching the topic
Abroad, the work is hindered by conjuncturalism and the “ethnic academic mafia”.

Inside the country, by the closed nature of information (there are no “Who is Who” reference books of any kind) and restrictions justified by contrived considerations of “national security”.

As a result, a large volume of publications sometimes conceals the insignificance of the results.

Research on the role of specific segments of the Iranian political elite: clerics.

Identifying the institutions and structures within which the Iranian political elite functions.

Research on the rituals and discourses of the Iranian political elite.