State Machinery in Iran

State Machinery of the Islamic Republic of Iran

The current political establishment in Iran is an astute combination of revolutionary ideals of the clergy, particularly of Ayatollah Khomeini, and the  political institutions that  predate the new Islamic regime. In a masterful move of statesmanship the Islamic Republic managed to imbibe in the new order institutions that date back to the Constitutional revolution of 1906. 

The decision making process within the Iranian regime is the product of a fusion between pre and post revolutionary institutions that in this project have been conceptualized as Iran's Iron fist and Velvet glove. Iran’s Iron fist comprises of the institutions that are the direct offspring of the revolution of 1979, its Velvet glove are the ones that originally emerged out of the Constitutional Revolution of 1905, were carried on by the Pahlavi regime and later imbibed by the Islamic Republic.  The constitution of Iran systematically precludes the pre revolutionary  institutions (Velvet Glove) from participating in the checking and balancing of the Post revolutionary (Iron Fist) institutions putting the Iron Fist at the forefront of the decision making process while marginalizing the Velvet Glove. 

(For a complete theoretical analyses of the Iron fist/Velvet glove argument click here)

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