Politics in Iran
The article in the 24 November Economist begins like a tale of two opposing cultures. It quickly becomes an analysis of Iranian politics centering on the president. It might add a dimension to what's available for your students.They think they have right on their side
"IT IS not hard to find examples of the peculiar divergence between how the world looks from Tehran, Iran's capital, and how it looks in... Washington, DC...
"But in many ways, the sparring capitals look more like mirror images than polar opposites. On different scales, both Iranians and Americans tend to take an imperial view. Both governments demonise the other..."
"Iran has the world's second-largest reserves of natural gas and third largest of oil. This president's tenure has coincided with surging prices that have pushed Iran's oil income above $50 billion a year...
"But to the dismay of Iranian economists, Mr Ahmadinejad has used this windfall to build immediate political capital rather than invest in the future. He has tirelessly toured the provinces, promising massive spending on local projects while maintaining subsidies that, by some estimates, devour a third of the government's budget and account for some 15% of GNP... [T]he gap between rich and poor yawns as widely as under the hated shah whom the ayatollahs ousted...
"Government officials try hard to project confidence. They point, for instance, to a boom in house construction and to Iran's success at gaining self-sufficiency in such things as wheat, steel and cement... The country seems mildly prosperous compared with its neighbours, with tidy parks, clean streets and impressive figures for schooling and health care...
"Iranian analysts debate whether Mr Ahmadinejad's free-spending ways have bolstered or diminished his base of support. Some argue that the rural poor, long disregarded by the urban elite, have directly benefited from state handouts and still warm to his rhetoric of class retribution. Even the middle class, they say, can see for itself the improvements in infrastructure, such as the underground train systems being built in four provincial cities...
"Iranians grumble openly about the economy. They tend to be less vocal but more worried about Mr Ahmadinejad's other policies...
"Yet such criticism has tended to be muted. Iran is no longer as brutal a police state as in the revolution's early years nor even as oppressive as many of its neighbours...
"But under Mr Ahmadinejad, selective repression has intensified just enough to signal that open dissent has again grown dangerous...
"Their efforts have proved quite effective. Most Iranians probably resist the idea of returning to the supposed Islamic purity of the early revolution, yet most are far too preoccupied with getting by to protest...
"Besides, Mr Ahmadinejad has had powerful allies. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has directly blessed the fierce morality campaign... though a newspaper close to Mr Khamenei this week accused the president of treating his opponents 'immorally'.
"Surprisingly to outsiders, who tend to view Iran through the lens of its articulate dissidents, Mr Khamenei remains a revered figure; his office still basks in the shadow of the republic's founding father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...
"Mr Ahmadinejad... is likely to pay a high price in domestic politics for his lack of tact. Assuming there is no American attack on Iran to provoke a nationalist backlash, his radical fundamentalists may well get drubbed in the parliamentary elections in March. In the poll that brought him to power in 2005, some 20m Iranians refrained from voting. Many are itching to get in a word this time..."
Labels: Iran, leadership, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:50 AM
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