The Anatomy of Governance in Iran
| Constitution: | 1979 (1989) |
| Executive(s): | Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution and the Nation (Vali Faqih) Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei; recognized by the Assembly of Experts in August 1989 following the death of his predecessor, Ayatollah Khomeini. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: initially directly elected in 2005, re-elected 12 June 2009, (attributed 62.6% of votes) |
| Legislature: | Unicameral: only one legislative or parliamentary chamber Islamic Consultative Assembly (290 seats; directly elected; last elections, 14 March and 25 April 2008): Conservatives: 170 Reformers: 71 Non-partisans: 39 Religious minorities: 5 Unfilled: 5 |
| Judiciary: | Supreme Court |
Overview
In January 1979, the Iranian Islamic revolution, led by the exiled spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, succeeded in ending the 37-year reign of Shah Reza Pahlavi. On April 1st 1979, Iran voted by national referendum to become an Islamic Republic and to approve a theocratic constitution whereby Ayatollah Khomeini became Shi’a Islam’s Supreme Leader (Vali Faqih) in Iran in December 1979. In December 1982, the Islamic clergy elected an Assembly of Experts to designate a successor to the Supreme Leader; in late 1985 the Assembly chose Ayatollah Ali Montazeri as Khomeini’s successor. Montazeri did not welcome the Assembly’s designation and resigned in March 1989. Following Ayatollah Khomeini’s sudden death in June 1989, the Assembly of Experts elevated the then President Seyyed Ali Khamenei to the status of Marja (Grand Ayatollah) and recognized him as the next Supreme Leader. The Supreme Leader is imbued with supreme authority in the Islamic Republic; however, the authority for administration remains in the office of the President.
The incumbent Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was elected in the second round of the 2005 elections with 61.69% of the vote, amid allegations that the elections had been ‘guided’ by the Revolutionary Guards and other fundamentalist forces. President Ahmadinejad was the first Iranian President since 1981 who was not a cleric. He was inaugurated on 6th August 2005, prompting the end of the phase of political liberalisation, that had begun in the mid-1990s, by stacking his cabinet with religious and political hard-liners.
President Ahmadinejad’s tenure has remained tenuous as his support within the Guardian Council and National Assembly has begun to weaken. With former President Rafsanjani’s election into Iran’s influential clerical body of the Assembly of Experts, President Ahmadinejad’s position became precarious as this move illustrated a desire amongst the clerics, including the Supreme Leader, to restrain his actions. Political tensions caused by the resurgence of the reformist opposition were exacerbated by the June 2009 presidential election. Mahmoud Admadinejad was declared to have won a resounding victory with 62.63% of the vote prompting rival candidates to challenge the results and allege prodigious vote-rigging. A street protest followed which resulted in at least 30 people being killed and more than 1,000 arrested. Regime activity has since focused on reinforcing the position of the conservative groups, with the emergence of some publicly apparent divisions within the leadership, including differences between the Supreme Leader and the President.
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The Supreme Leader (Vali Faqih)
Iran’s form of government, known as Velayat e-Faqih – rule of the jurist – gives the Supreme Leader absolute authority. This derives from the normative thinking of Plato in “The Republic” that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini advocated during his exile which argues that philosophers are best suited to rule nations – Khomeini believed that the Mullahs were adept for this role.
The Supreme Leader is appointed by the Assembly of Experts which also monitors his performance and can remove him if he is deemed unable to fulfil his duties. The Supreme Leader’s key responsibilities are that he:
The incumbent Supreme Leader is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who served as President of Iran from 1981 to 1989, and was subsequently chosen to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Supreme Leader sets the character and direction for Iran’s domestic and foreign policies, as well as being the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and controlling the Islamic Republic’s intelligence and security operations. Prior to his accession as Supreme Leader, Khamenei was not a Marja (Grand Ayatollah), or even an Ayatollah; the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the time required the Supreme Leader to be a Marja. In view of this situation, the Constitution was revised so that the Supreme Leader need only be an expert on Islamic jurisprudence and possess the appropriate political and managerial skills.
Khamenei’s era as Supreme Leader has been characterised by balancing one political group against another, making sure that no single side gains too much power. This can be observed in the 2004 legislative elections where the Council of Guardians, that he appointed, used their authority to oversee elections and to severely restrict the number and competence of reformist candidates allowed to stand. The Council also restricted reformist candidates from standing in 2005 presidential elections, leading to the election of a hard-line conservative candidate, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Ayatollah Khamenei has encouraged the rise of the military in the political sphere in recent years. Khamenei has supported the persecution of Bahá’ís and has reportedly signed documents recommending several organized methods of oppression and other ways to decrease the influence of Bahá’ís, both in Iran and abroad.
President
The President is the second highest ranking official in Iran, is elected for four years and can serve no more than two consecutive terms. The President is head of the executive branch of the state and is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the Constitution. The July 1989 amendments to the Constitution strengthened the office of the President, particularly with the abolition of the office of Prime Minister and the consolidation of administrative powers in the Presidency. The President’s power is partially impeded by the Constitution which subordinates the entire executive branch to the Supreme Leader. All presidential candidates are vetted by the Guardian Council both for their legality and their competence. The Council restricted reformist candidates from standing in the 2005 election, which led to the election of the hard-line conservative candidate, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The ultra-conservative Mr Ahmadinejad had served as Tehran’s mayor before winning a run-off vote in elections in June 2005, defeating his rival, the former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to become Iran’s first non-cleric President in the 24 years since the Revolution. The Ahmadinejad regime has enabled the Revolutionary Guards to gain significant influence within the government, with the country becoming increasingly authoritarian in recent years.
President Ahmadinejad is a populist hard-liner who employs a strong rhetoric against the United States and Israel, whilst maintaining a rigid stance on Iran’s nuclear programme. Despite proving popular domestically, President Ahmadinejad’s stance on the nuclear programme has enraged the West leading Iran to be subjected to four rounds of United Nations Security Council sanctions. Amongst the controversial and inflammatory themes in statements made by Ahmadinejad are his call for an end to the state of Israel, describing the Holocaust as a myth and attributing the 9/11 attacks as being the work of a US-led conspiracy.
Parliament
The Iranian Parliament (Majlis) is a unicameral legislative body, whose members are publicly elected every four years. It drafts legislation, ratifies international treaties, and approves the country’s budget.
Parliament is monitored by the Guardian Council, which ensures that all legislation is compliant with sharia, or Islamic, law as well as vetting candidates for parliament based on their religious and political competence. The current Speaker of the Majlis is Ali Larijani.
Guardian Council
The Guardian Council of the Constitution, or Guardian Council, is an appointed, and constitutionally-mandated, 12-member council that oversees all elections and reviews all legislation to ensure its compliance with the principles of Islamic law. The Guardian Council consists of six Islamic jurists (theologians) appointed by the Supreme Leader and six jurists nominated by the judiciary and approved by Parliament. The Guardian Council is currently chaired by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati. Members are elected for six years on a phased basis, hence half the membership changes every three years.
The Guardian Council is a powerful part of the executive branch, operating in a legislative, judicial and electoral capacity. The Council’s legislative functions are to review and approve bills passed by the Majlis (Parliament). Article 96 of the Constitution gives the Guardian Council the power to veto all legislation approved by the Majlis on two grounds; first, if it is against Islamic Law, and; second if it is against the Constitution. It is only the Islamic jurist element of the Guardian Council who can vote on the grounds of legislation being compatible with Islam.
The Council of Guardians’ judicial authority functions analogously to a constitutional court; to rule on whether or not laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional – interpretative decisions require a three-quarter majority.
The Guardian Council’s electoral functions allow it to block candidates standing for election to Parliament, the Presidency and the Assembly of Experts. The Guardian Council must approve candidates based on their religious and political qualifications; the current Guardian Council is known for its conservative Islamic views. In the 2005 elections the Council banned all but six of the 1,014 candidates for the presidential elections. The intervention of the Supreme Leader allowed two more to stand, both reformists. All female candidates were barred from standing.
Assembly of Experts
The Assembly of Experts is a deliberative body of 86 Mujtahids (Islamic scholars) that appoints the Supreme Leader, monitors his performance and can remove him if he is deemed incapable of fulfilling his duties. In addition to these responsibilities, the Assembly is charged with compiling a list of those eligible to become Supreme Leader, in the event of the current leader’s death, resignation or dismissal. Members of the Assembly are required to be clerics and experts in Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh) and are elected from a list of candidates vetted by the Guardian Council by direct public vote for eight-year terms. The Assembly is required by law to hold two sessions a year – although based in the holy city of Qom, sessions are also held in Tehran and Mashhad. The fourth Assembly is chaired by the former reformist President Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Expediency Discernment Council
The Expediency Discernment Council (Expediency Council) was established as part of the 1988 revision of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Expediency Council is an advisory body for the Supreme Leader and adjudicates in executive, judicial and legislative disputes between the Parliament and the Guardian Council. As such, the Expediency Council is the highest body to advise the Supreme Leader. The Expediency Council consists of 34 members who the majority hail from conservative parties and is chaired by Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani since February 6th 1989. Members are appointed by the Supreme Leader who are prominent religious, social and political figures.
In October 2005, the Supreme Leader gave the Expediency Council “supervisory” powers over all branches of government – delegating some of his own authority, as is permitted in the Constitution.
Judicial Branch
Through most of Iranian history the Judicial Branch has been controlled by the clergy, with the system becoming secularised in recent years (20th Century); however, the Islamic Revolution revoked all previous laws that were perceived as un-Islamic. Law in contemporary Iran is based on Shi’a Islamic, or Sharia, law that is derived from Islamic texts and teachings. The Judiciary enforces Islamic laws and defines legal policy. In addition to this, the Judiciary nominates the six lay members of the Guardian Council. According to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Judiciary is an independent entity.
The Head of the Judiciary, currently Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashami Shahrudi, is appointed by, and reports to, the Supreme Leader. The Head of the Judiciary in turn appoints the head of the Supreme Court and the chief public prosecutor. The Judiciary consists of three courts; the public courts that deal with civil and criminal cases, revolutionary courts that try certain offences such as narcotics smuggling and undermining the Islamic Republic, and the Special Clerical Court which functions independently of the judicial framework and is accountable only to the Supreme leader. The Special Clerical Court primarily handles crimes allegedly committed by clerics, but it has also tried cases involving lay people.
Revolutionary Guards (Sepāh e Pasdaran)
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards (IRG) was established following the 1979 Revolution to defend the country’s Islamic system, and to provide a counterweight to the regular armed forces. The IRG has an estimated 125,000 military personne,l including ground, air and naval forces. It also controls the paramilitary Basij militia which has 90,000 active personnel and can call on 300,000 reservists with up to 1,000,000 volunteer affiliates. The IRG has developed into a multibillion dollar business empire having a substantial stake in Iran’s economy, controlling around a third of it through a series of subsidiaries and trusts. The Guards’ engineering wing, Khatam-ol-Anbia (GHORB) has been awarded several multibillion dollar construction and engineering contracts, including the operation of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini international airport.
