Teaching Comparative

Political Legitimacy in Iran

Legitimacy is complex. It offers great opportunities for comparative studies. But sometimes an in-depth examination of a concept is a valuable exploration. You probably have access to other and better articles.

What would your students say about legitimacy after reading these articles? How would they define it based on these examples? Would they recognize the varying perspectives from which legitimacy can be seen? Can legitimacy be coerced? How can it be earned? How can it be lost?

ONE: Iran: Hard-line clerics say their rule is derived from God
From the Northwest Florida Daily News, 29 August 2006

"The legitimacy of Iran's hard-line clerics is derived from God, the head of a powerful clerical panel said Tuesday.

"Hard-liners in Iran are at odds with pro-democracy reformers who believe the legitimacy of the government is derived from elections by the people.

"But Ayatollah Ali Meshkini said all of the Iran's institutions operate under the supervision of the supreme leader who has been appointed by God.

"'This (God) has given them legitimacy,' the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Meshkini as saying when he addressed a meeting of the Assembly of Experts in Tehran. The panel has the authority to choose or dismiss Iran's top leader.

"Earlier this month, assembly member Ayatollah Abolqasem Khazali said the legitimacy of the 'governance is not derived from people. In Islam, the legitimacy of the government comes from God.'"

TWO: IRAN’S "CRISIS OF LEGITIMACY" COULD PROMPT AUTHORITARIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE
from EurasiaNet, 29 August 2003

"The political gridlock caused by infighting between conservative and reformist forces in Iran has fostered what analysts in Tehran characterize as a "crisis of legitimacy." Growing popular apathy towards the political process is preparing the ground for a possible authoritarian alternative, some observers go on to warn..."

THREE: Iran opposition group seeks US legitimacy
from Iran InterLink, 26 October 2005

"Even by the standards of Washington politics it was an unusual spectacle - the veiled leader of a Middle East group banned in the US as a terrorist organisation delivering a speech by live video-link to applauding members of Congress inside the Capitol itself.

"But since the organisation is dedicated to the overthrow of Iran's theocracy, the People's Mujahideen Organisation and its political co-leader, Maryam Rajavi, are given leeway in the US as they campaign to have the "terrorist" tag removed and to become eligible for US funding of Iranian opposition groups.

"Despite its attraction to the US - and particularly to some Pentagon planners - as an armed force inside Iraq ready in opposition, analysts in Washington doubt the group will regain legitimacy..."

FOUR: Legitimacy and Succession in Iranian History

(There's a link to a .pdf file of the whole article.) From Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East at Duke University, 2003

"Abstract

"In Iran, both before and after Islam, the ruler was thought to be God's vicegerent on earth and, unlike Europe, his legitimacy was not dependent on the law of primogeniture. Thus he was not bound by any written or unwritten law or tradition and could take decisions up to the utmost of his physical power, the only restraint being the fear of rebellion. He would lose God's Grace and somehow fall from power if he ruled unjustly, but there was no test either for possessing the grace or for losing it except by virtue of holding power or being overthrown. There were thus no rules for succession and rebels could and did claim legitimacy once they were successful. The position both justified and was justified by arbitrary rule, where long-term functional social classes did not exist and history became a series of connected short terms, a sociological phenomenon which still persists in Iranian society."


FIVE: Press Conference on Iran
from the U.S. Department of State, 31 May 2006

"QUESTION: Madame Secretary, in the past this Administration has been very reluctant to do anything that might be seen as giving legitimacy to a government that you, at least the past, always talked about as being led by the "unelected few." By agreeing to sit down with this government, are you now providing that legitimacy to this administration which has been in power for 27 years in Iran, and are you also saying that the U.S. is not going to actively try to undercut, overthrow, undermine the Iranian Government?

"SECRETARY RICE: We have been very clear and nobody is confused about the nature of this Iranian regime. We know precisely about the nature of this Iranian regime. We know that this is a regime that does not give rights to its people for political participation. We know that this is a regime that is engaged in supporting terrorism around the world. Nobody is confused about the nature of this regime.

"But the President made very clear that we are going to do everything that we can to find a diplomatic solution to the nuclear problem and the only thing that is being provided legitimacy here is the international community's consensus that Iran must suspend its current enrichment and reprocessing activities, return to serious negotiations, find a civil nuclear program that does not have proliferation risks associated with it through the fuel cycle, and negotiate in good faith. That's what's being provided legitimacy. What's being provided legitimacy here is the negotiating process to which we have long been committed.

"We will continue to have our differences with the Iranian regime on the vast number of issues that are before us, but it is our view that a diplomatic solution to the nuclear program is necessary, a diplomatic solution to the nuclear program is in sight by a unified response of the international community and that this is our best way to get that response..."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:26 AM