Politics of Iran


The politics of Iran takes place in the framework of an Islamic theocracy which was formed following the overthrow of Iran's millennia-long monarchy by the 1979 Revolution. Iran's system of government was described by Juan José Linz in 2000 as combining "the ideological bent of totalitarianism with the limited pluralism of authoritarianism", although it "holds regular elections in which candidates who advocate different policies and incumbents are frequently defeated". Iran was evaluated as an electoral autocracy for year 2024 by V-Dem Institute according to Regimes of the World classification.
The December 1979 constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, declares that Shia Islam is Iran's state religion, and it combines elements of theocracy with a presidential system in a religious democracy. Iran directly elects the president, parliament and the Assembly of Experts.
All candidates who run for these positions must be vetted by the Guardian Council for their loyalty to the Islamic Republic's system of government.
Indirectly elected are the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Supreme Leader of Iran, and the Guardian Council, half of which is made up of Islamic jurists.
In addition, there are representatives from appointed organizations, usually under the Supreme Leader's control, to "protect the state's Islamic character".
The Supreme Leader is the head of state, above the president.

History and background

1979 Revolution

In 1979, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown by an Islamic Revolution in Iran, replacing its millennia-old monarchy with a theocratic republic. Shortly after, the leader of the Revolution, a senior Islamic jurist named Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, also transliterated Khumaynî, successfully supported referendums to declare Iran an Islamic Republic in March 1979, and to approve a constitution in December 1979, whereby "the Islamic government" would be "based upon wilayat al-faqih", "as proposed by Imam Khumaynî", quoting the preamble of the constitution.
The constitution, calls for a Vali-ye faqih, to serve as the Supreme Leader of Iran, and for Islamic jurists to serve in other powerful institutions such as the Guardian Council and Assembly of Experts.

Establishment of guardianship of the jurist

Guardianship of the Jurist is a concept in Twelver Shia Islamic law, which holds that, in the absence of the "Infallible Imam", who, according to Twelver beliefs, is the religious and political leader of Islam and will reappear sometime before Judgement Day, righteous Shi'i jurists should administer "some" of the "religious and social affairs" of the Shi'i community. In its "absolute" form—the form advanced by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the basis of government in Islamic Republic of Iran—the state and society are ruled by an Islamic jurist. Khomeini served as the Guardian Jurist Supreme Leader of Iran until his death in 1989. His successor, Ali Khamenei, is still ruling as of mid 2025.
In a 1970 book on the subject circulated to his network of supporters, Khomeini argued that since Islamic sharia law contains everything needed to rule a state, whether ancient or modern, any other basis of governance will lead to injustice and sin. Thus Iran, the Muslim world and eventually the whole world, must be ruled according to sharia, and the person who should rule according to sharia, is an expert in that form of law.
These Guardians are deemed the true holders of both religious and political authority, who must be obeyed as "an expression of obedience to God",
and whose rule has "precedence over all secondary ordinances in Islam such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage."

Post-revolutionary political conditions

The early days of the revolutionary government were characterized by political tumult. In November 1979, the US embassy was seized and its occupants taken hostage and kept captive for 444 days, because of US support for the Shah of Iran. The eight-year Iran–Iraq War killed hundreds of thousands and cost the country billions of dollars. By the early 1980s, power struggles ended in leftists and nationalists eliminated from all governmental institutions, and the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini and his supporters firmly in control.
Iran's post-revolution challenges have included the imposition of economic sanctions and the suspension of diplomatic relations with Iran by the United States because of the hostage crisis, political support to Iraq and other acts of terrorism that the U.S. government and some others have accused Iran of sponsoring. Emigration from Iran has cost Iran millions of educated people, including entrepreneurs, professionals, technicians, and skilled craftspeople and their capital. Poverty rose by nearly 45% in absolute terms during the first 6 years of the Iran-Iraq War, and according to the World Bank, by the time the war ended in 1988, per capita income was a little more than half of what it had been in 1976, shortly before the revolution.

Human rights

Background
The alleged tyranny and brutality towards all opposition of the monarchy was one of the propaganda themes of the Islamic revolution, but the Islamic Republic has not tolerated opposition to its system of government, since, as mentioned above, it believes disobedience to it is disobedience to God. In 1984, Iran's representative to the United Nations, Saʿid Rajaʾie-Khorassani, declared the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be representing a "secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition", which did not "accord with the system of values recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran" and whose provisions the IRI would "not hesitate to violate".
In reply to international criticism of repression, Iranian officials loyal to the Supreme Leader deny wrongdoing, maintaining its human rights record is better than western countries who criticize its record. In 2004, Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, denied that there were any political prisoners in Iran, saying "The world may consider certain cases, by their nature, political crimes, but because we do not have a law in this regard, these are considered ordinary offenses." In 2008, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad replied to a question about human rights by stating that Iran has fewer prisoners than the US and "the human rights situation in Iran is relatively a good one, when compared... with some European countries and the United States."
Whether the Islamic Republic goes well beyond what Sunni and many Shia Muslims consider Islamic exceptions to international human rights norms, is also an issue. Khomeini's January 1988 pronouncement "... that government is a branch of the Prophet's absolute Wilayat and one of the primary rules of Islam that has priority over all ordinances of the law even praying, fasting and Hajj…The Islamic State could prevent implementation of everything – devotional and non- devotional – that so long as it seems against Islam's interests", leads Ann Elizabeth Mayer to argue that this theory of velayat-e motlaqaye faqih "freed" the Islamic Republic "to do as it chose-even if this meant violating fundamental pillars of the religion...", and that this doctrine, not sharia law, explained "the prevalence of torture and punishment of political dissent" in the Islamic Republic.
On the other hand, despite the vast popularity of Khomeini in Iran before and after the revolution,, observers have suggested there is no widespread support for violent crackdowns on dissent in contemporary Iran. "Notions of democracy and human rights" now have much deeper roots among Iranians than under the Shah, and in fact are "almost hegemonic", so that it is much harder to spread fear among them, even to the point that if Iranian intelligence services "were to arrest anyone who speaks ill of the government in private, they simply couldn't build cells fast enough to hold their prisoners", according to journalist Hooman Majd.
Situation
The Islamic Republic centralized and drastically expanded the prison system of the previous regime. In one early period more than 7,900 people were executed. Somewhere between 3,000 and 30,000 political prisoners were executed between July and early September 1988 on orders of the Ayatollah Khomeini, causing a 2020 UN Special Rapporteurs to send a letter to the regime describing the killings as "crimes against humanity".
The Islamic Republic has been criticized both for restrictions and punishments that follow the Islamic Republic's constitution and law, but not international human rights norms ; and for "extrajudicial" actions that follow neither, such as firebombings of newspaper offices, and beatings, torture, rape, and killing without trial of political prisoners and dissidents/civilians.

Protests

While the Islamic Republic has been noted for its political stability, political protests against perceived corruption and injustice have become more severe and common in the twenty-first century. Nevertheless, at least one analyst, Seth G. Jones, believes that as of 2019, "the Iranian protest movement is... too decentralized and Iranian security forces... too strong" for the regime to be in danger of being overthrown by protesters. Some protests include:
  • Iran student protests, July 1999: Protested the closure of the reformist newspaper, and violent attack on a student dormitory by riot police. Disappearance of more than seventy students, 1,200–1,400 arrested.
  • 2009 Iranian presidential election protests: Protest against alleged voting fraud and irregularities during the 2009 election. An estimated 36 killed according to Iranian government, 72 killed according to opposition.
  • 2011–12 Iranian protests: Protest against alleged electoral fraud during 2009 elections, violation of human rights, lack of freedom of speech, corruption.
  • 2017–18 Iranian protests: Protest against economic hardships, government corruption, Iranian involvement in regional conflicts, the autocratic government of Ali Khamenei, human rights violations; 23-25 killed, 4,972 people arrested.
  • 2018–2019 Iranian general strikes and protests: Protests against economic hardships, government corruption, Iranian involvement in regional conflicts. 300+ arrested.
  • 2019–20 Iranian protests: Protest against government corruption, fuel price increases, human rights abuses, in favor of regime change. an estimated 1,500 killed, 7,000+ arrested.
  • 2021–2022 Iranian protests: Protested the ongoing water shortages and blackouts of electricity all over Iran. An estimated 11 people killed, over 100 arrested.
  • 2025–2026 Iranian protests: Beginning on 28 December 2025, the events have been described as the largest uprising since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The ensuing crackdown resulted in the 2026 Iran massacres.