The popularisation of factional politics in the IRI from Khatami to Rouhani

• Main Author: Nekouei, Navid
• Published: London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) 2016
• Subjects: JQ Political institutions Asia
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.724559

The fundamental research topic of this thesis is: to determine the extent to which the emergence and evolution of factional groups and their politics have been conditioned by their conception of 'the role of people' in the political arena. It will also explore their perceptions of societal demands and expectations in a different period of the IRI's short history. In other words, it aims to trace and explain the evolution of popularisation of factional politics in the IRI. To answer this question, I also elaborate another related question: the extent to which the emergence and evolution of certain factional groups have been conditioned by the character of personal relationships between key, leading actors in each group. These two interrelated issues represent the most important omissions in the academic literature on factional politics in the IRI. Therefore, by definition, I will show how, with the death of Khomeini in 1989 and the consequent decentralisation of ideological production in the IRI, forcing factional groups to reach out of the institutional context and seek popular electoral support in order to successfully compete in factional struggles within the institutions of the IRI. As a result, societal demands and/or the elite's perception of these demands became an important element in the dynamics of factional politics in the post-Khomeini era. Various factions articulated their conceptions of 'the role of people' in the IRI's politics-rooted in and justified by their respective interpretations of Khomeinism. Theses competing conceptions of the 'role of people' in the IRI engendered the emergence of series of discourses and slogans within the framework of Khomeinism aimed to justify the factions' claims of being the representatives of popular demands and Khomeinism. Furthermore, the members of the elite of the IRI, both those who participated in the revolution and their offspring, have a long personal history with each other. Positive and negative feelings that emerged from any of these experiences, I intend to show, at some key points have played roles of various degrees of importance in the emergence and evolution of certain factional groups and their actions in vital political events, such as the controversial 2009 elections and its aftermath. The thesis will draw its theoretical base and methodology from the literature on hybrid regimes, faction in democratic and party-based systems, and faction in absolutist systems, in addition to the existing literature on factional politics in the IRI dealing with the institutional context.