The Iranian Constitution
posted by Gerard Magliocca
I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Iranian politics, so naturally I’ve been interested in what’s going on and thinking about what I might say that would be useful.
The first thought that comes to mind is actually a line from “I, Claudius” where a Senator responds to the tyranny of the Praetorian Guard with: ”I never fully realized how a small mind, allied to unlimited ambition and without scruple, can destroy a nation full of clever men.”
The 1979 Revolution, led by the Ayatollah Khomeini, created a system called “Velayat-e-faqih” or “Rule of the Jurist.” The Supreme Leader in Iran derives his legitmacy as the regent for the “Hidden Imam,” who according to Shia teaching is the legitimate heir of Mohammed and will return at end time to establish the kindgom of Allah. This is not all that different from the idea of divine right that was the organizing principle of European monarchies for centuries.
Elections such as the one held two weeks ago are not necessarily inconsistent with this regime, but sovereignty clearly rests with Allah and his designees, not with the people. Since this debate was resolved in the West a long time ago, it may be hard to understand a political environment in which the claims of protestors do not have instant authority. (Of course, it was a popular revolt that got rid of the Shah in the first place, but let’s leave that contradiction aside.)
I hesitate to draw any conclusions from what has occurred, but I’m struck by the similarities to the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989. In both cases, the leadership is made up of enough original revolutionaries, even if they are one step removed from the charismatic leader (Mao and Khomeini), to rally the support of the military and the security services. And in both cases, the repression was preceded by a “warning” speech that blamed the demonstrators for what was about to happen. Let’s hope the outcome is not the same.
June 23, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Posted in: Current Events
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Responses (4)
Bruce Boyden - June 23, 2009 at 2:45 pm
I thought of Tiananmen too. One important difference though, there appears to be a split among the rulers of the country that is adding to the turmoil. Zhao may have disagreed on how to handle the protesters, but he wasn’t leading the protest, unlike Moussavi and Rafsanjani. It’s a bit like having Tiananmen combined with the 1984 struggle for control of the Soviet Politburo.
Matt - June 24, 2009 at 4:39 am
Interesting and useful- thanks Gerald. I wonder if there are not some important differences from Tiananmen, too- my recollection (more from books than the even- I was fairly young when that happened) was that the Chinese government did quite a good job of keeping most of the country from knowing what was happening, and that partly because of this, support for the protesters wasn’t able to grow nationally. (Also, they were a fairly elite group who didn’t necessarily represent the day-to-day concerns of most Chinese, I think, something less obviously so in the case of a stolen election.) China has quite a long history of being able to rule in part by keeping some parts of the country unaware of what was happening in other parts (this was especially so, I believe, during the huge famines of the ’60s.) This, of course, continues today, where most Chinese in China know little about Tiananmen at all, I’m told. But we seem to have a different case in Iran, in part because the triggering event was nation-wide, but also because of the use of modern technology. I’m not even close to thinking that this will mean the protesters will win- the regime has wide-spread support, even in the general public, I think, making victory for the protesters seem unlikely to me- but I do think it makes the job of the government much harder and less certain in a way that’s importantly different from Tiananmen.
Jeffrey Usman - June 24, 2009 at 6:50 am
Professor Magliocca, you noted that under the Iranian Constitution that “sovereignty clearly rests with Allah and his designees, not with the people.” I certainly do not disagree with this point given that Article 1 of the Iranian Constitution addresses the “sovereignty of truth and Qur’anic justice” and that under Article 2 the Islamic Republic is defined as a system of governance based on belief in God’s “exclusive sovereignty” and His “right to legislate, and the necessity of submission to His commands” as well as acceptance of “Divine revelation and its fundamental role in setting forth the laws.”
The Iranian Constitution, nevertheless, has rather deep intrusions of democratic principles. Though certainly on practical level these impacts are kept separate from the ultimate levers of governmental authority, the Iranian Constitution repeatedly references democratic ideals in interesting and somewhat surprising ways. For example, Article 6 provides that “[i]n the Islamic Republic of Iran, the affairs of the country must be administered on the basis of public opinion expressed by the means of elections . . . or by means of referenda in matters specified in other articles of this Constitution.” Additionally, Article 56 provides that “[a]bsolute sovereignty over the world and man belongs to God, and it is He Who has made man master of his own social destiny. No one can deprive man of this divine right, nor subordinate it to the vested interests of a particular individual or group. The people are to exercise this divine right in the manner specified in the following articles.” In other words, God gave the right to “man [to be] in charge of his social destiny,” and this “God given right” is to be exercised by the people. The democratic Islamic philosophy of Iranian reformers such as Dr. Abdolkarim Soroush seems quite consistent with these democratic principles, which are already embedded within the Iranian Constitution.
Olga Y. Wayne - July 7, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Here are two links to some of my ramblings on this issue, which link to your blog:
http://ourforwardmovement.blogspot.com/2009/07/gonna-change-my-way-of-thinking.html
and
http://ourforwardmovement.blogspot.com/2009/07/rules-of-revolution.html
thanks for reading! if you are aware of any action the UN is considering regarding Iran, besides what is reported on CNN, I would sincerely appreciate a tip.
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