1. Governance and Policymaking in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Ayatollah Jannati
Chairman
of the Guardian Council
The Majles
in session in Tehran

2. Constitution
Written by its clerical leadership, The “Assembly of Religious Experts”, immediately after the 1979 Revolution, the Constitution was amended in 1989 during the last months of Khomeini’s life. The final document is a mixture of democracy and theocracy:
On the one hand it allows elections using universal suffrage to elect the Majles and president and is thus the most democratic constitution that Iran had to date.
On the other hand it ensures that ultimate authority rests in the hands of senior Shiite clerics though a series of unelected and often repressive institutions.

3. The Unelected Elements
The Supreme Leader: For all intents and purposes, Iran has two chief executives: an elected president and a Supreme Leader, a senior cleric named for life by other senior ulema, who has veto power over almost everything that elected officials want to do.
The rationale for this position lies in a series of lectures that Khomeini made while in exile in Najaf in These were subsequently published as Velayat e-Faqih or “The Guardianship of the Jurist”. Khomeini argued that senior clerics had a moral right to provide leadership in political as well as religious matters.

4. The Supreme Leader is appointed by the “Assembly of Experts”, a body of senior clerics elected by the people and has immense power, controlling the media, the judiciary, and the clerical hierarchy.
The Supreme Leader sets the overall policies of the state and appoints some of its key figures: head of the Judiciary, half the members of the Guardian Council, members of the Expediency Council, the director of the state radio and television broadcasting monopoly, commanders of the military
He oversees various para-statals that were expropriated after the revolution and are run as “non-profits” in distributing patronage.

5. In theory, the Assembly of Experts, which is elected every 8 years by universal suffrage, is more powerful than the Supreme Leader. It elected him and can dismiss him if he is deemed unfit for office. However, candidacies for the Assembly of Experts are subject to the approval of the Guardian Council who are selected by the Supreme Leader.
The Supreme Leader today is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a conservative who, like Khomeini, had once been arrested by the shah. While Khamenei is less charismatic and popular than Khomeini, he shares Khomeini’s willingness to speak out in support of conservative, nationalistic opinions. (clip)

6. The Guardian Council: The most important collegial body is the Guardian Council that consists of six senior clerics appointed by the Supreme Leader and six judges named by the Majles from a list compiled by the Supreme Judicial Council appointed by the Supreme Leader. In short, the Guardian Council
is composed primarily of men who support the conservative and theocratic elements of the regime.
has to approve all legislation and has blocked reform proposals on numerous occasions.
has to approve all candidates for presidential and Majles elections: It barred over 2,500 candidates from running in 2004, assuring conservative victory.

7. The Expediency Council: Due to conflicts between the Majles and the Guardian Council, Khomeini created the Expediency Council in 1988 to serve as a senior advisory board. Appointed by the Supreme Leader for five year terms, its 30 members meet with leaders of the two bodies to iron out issues. The current chairman is Hashemi Rafsanjani.
The Judiciary: Reports to the Supreme Leader. In addition to the criminal and civil courts, Iran also has clerical courts with powers to adjudicate and prosecute cases involving Islam. The constitution adopted a highly restrictive version of Shari’a called “The Retribution Law”. Its harsh penalties have rarely been implemented in recent years.

8. The Elected Institutions
President: While the president is directly elected, candidacies must be approved by the Guardian Council. Of the 7 presidents since the revolution, 4 have been mullahs or Muslim clerics.
Unlike the situation for the Majles, the council has mostly removed candidates who had no realistic chance of winning.
The president is chosen every four years through a national election and can be elected for two terms.
The constitution describes the president as the chief executive but lists the president as second to the senior Islamic law jurist i.e. the Supreme Leader.

9. The president’s responsibilities include:
drawing up an annual budget
supervising economic matters
ability to propose legislation to the Majles
conducting international and external policies
signing all international treaties, laws, and external policies
chairing the National Security Council for defense
appointing most senior officials, including provincial governors, town mayors, ambassadors and directors of large public corporations (National Iranian Oil Company, etc)

10. Parliament
Iran’s unicameral Parliament, the Majles, comprises about 290 members elected by universal suffrage for four year terms. Members have to be Muslims, but the Constitution provides for 5 other MPs to represent Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians.
The Majles has law making powers, but its legislation must not contravene the Constitution or Islam as determined by the Guardian Council.
The Majles has the right to investigate affairs of state, approve or reject the president’s cabinet appointments, and call ministers to account and subject them to votes of no-confidence.

11. In his treatise on Islamic government, Khomeini assigned little importance to Parliament, arguing that Islam had already laid down laws for most matters. Indeed what the Majles are able to pass are statutes or quanun and not shari’a (Islamic law).
In the first Majles of the Islamic Republic, almost half of all deputies were clerics, but this has declined over time and today they constitute about 15% or 42 of 281 members of the Majles. There are only 12 women MPs.
The Majles legislative role is limited by rules and subject to the veto of the Guardian Council. It has mainly been a forum to air and debate policies.

12. Elected and Unelected Institutions in the Islamic Republic

13. An Undemocratic Constitution
The authority of Iran’s elected bodies (the President and the Majles) is systematically circumscribed by unelected bodies.
While the Supreme Leader is chosen by an elected body, there is no limit on his term, making him, for all intents and purposes, a leader with vast powers who cannot easily be removed.
The Supreme Leader’s powers also derive from his ability to appoint the head of the judiciary and the commanders of the police, army and Islamic Revolutionary Corps (Pasdaran). In short, he controls the coercive apparatus of the state.

14. The limited authority of the president and Majles became startingly blatant when reformists gained control of the presidency in 1997 and 2001 with the election of Mohammad Khatami and of the Majles in The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, openly sided with anti-reformist conservatives and, with the help of the Guardian Council, refused to validate reformist candidates to the Majles.
Iran’s Constitution fails to provide the legal equality and human rights found in many other Third World countries as well as in most developed countries. Minority groups such as the Bahai’s have been discriminated against as a result.

15. Policy-Making The complexity of policy-making in Iran’s government relates to factional divisions. With the promulgation of the Constitution, Islamic clerics divided into two blocs: The Society (Majum’eh) of Militant Clergy: these are statist reformers or populists. The more radicals among these want to create a social welfare state by using state power to redistribute wealth, eradicate unemployment, finance social programs, etc. The Association (Jam’eh) of the Militant Clergy: These a “laissez-faire” free market conservatives who aim at middle-class support such as bazaaris.

16. Conservatives hope to remove price controls, lower business taxes, cut red tape, and balance the budget, even at the expense of social programs. Polarization between reformers and conservatives created gridlock when the reformers were in control of the Majles while conservatives in the Guardian Council routinely vetoed reformist proposals. To break the Constitutional deadlock, Khomeini introduced the Islamic concept of “maslahat” or “public interest” that gave absolute authority to the state headed by the clerics. He set up the Expediency Council to resolve conflicts between the Majles and Guardian Council.

17. Administrative Structure
Iran is a highly centralized unitary state divided into provinces (headed by governor-generals), subdistricts (by lieutentant governors), towns (by mayors) and villages (by headmen).
Per the constitution, management of local affairs are under the supervision of councils to be elected by the local population but these elections only began under the Khatami administration in 1999.
The president, through his Interior Minister, appoints the provincial governor-generals, lieutentant governors, and other regional officials who are to consult with the local councils in policymaking.