Open Blog Post 9: Iran ’s Political Institutions

Iran ’s Political Institutions

  Based on the Iranian Constitution, Iran is running under the specific institutions which there is unification, integration of religion and politics, and religious authority is higher than everything. The supreme leader now Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has almost absolute power which every word carries weight. His authority is beyond administration, legislation, even judiciary. And on the face of it, president is just the second hand in command which also has to listen every word supreme leader says. And the reason I say “on the face of it”, is because of the special combine of Iran’s complicated internal religious system and republic political institution.

   After the Islamic Revolution succeed in Iran after 1979, its main religious party Shiite built up a special “Islamic Republic Institution”, under the leader Ayatollah Khomeini. This is a special model which is different from most eastern and western political institution. And I would love to specify some key words for this article:

   Supreme Leader is the first hand in command in Iran, and also the symbol of integration of religion and politics. He is the chief command of military force, and has the power of declaring war and armistice. He could appoint and dismiss any religious member of Guardian Council of the Constitution, Head of Judiciary officer, Chairman of Mass Media groups, Chief of Staff of military, and Command of Revolutionary Guards, military and any other security forces. He has responsibility to coordinate the relationship between three authority agencies and their leaders. Supreme leader could even dismiss the president if he has some jobbery, dishonesty and corruption, or under such circumstances which the Parliament(Islamic Consultative Assembly) finds out president being political paralysis.

    Then, the Iran President is the second in command after supreme leader. He is not only the head of state, but also the chief of government. President is responsible for implementing the constitution, coordinating the relationship between three authorities, and leading any other administrative affairs which is not directly under supreme leader’s command. President is a directly-elected officer with maximum two terms, and each term of office is 4 years, which is like America and many other western countries.

   Third, the Assembly of Experts. It is the top authority organization which responsible for electing and removing Supreme leader and supervising his activities. The assembly has totally 86 members and only the top Shiite clerics could be one of them. And, whenever supreme leader becomes incapable of fulfilling his constitutional duties, or loses one of the qualifications mentioned in the Constitution, or it becomes known that he did not possess some of the qualifications initially, the Assembly has authority to dismiss him. Otherwise, in the event of supreme leader’s death, resignation and dismissal like what I said in front, the Assembly should take as the shortest as possible to appoint a new leader. What the noteworthy is, most of its members are Ayatollah. “Ayatollah” is the high-ranking title given to Shiite clerics, which are the experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy, and usually teach in Islamic seminaries. The Shiite clerics who own this title has great power and reputation. In many aspects, the Ayatollah has even more influence power to citizens then president, and more widely spread reputation. The Chairman now is Mohammad Yazdi which was selected on 10th, March, 2015.

    Fourth, the Iranian Expediency Discernment Council of the System. Currently, this committee already have supremacy over the administration and legislation authority. Usually, the Islamic Consultative Assembly, also called the Iranian Parliament or Majlis, is the top legislative agency. But for making sure any parliament’s resolution doesn’t violate Islam doctrine and constitutional principle, constitution stipulated the establishment of Guardian Council. Any resolution passed by Majlis must also be approved by Guardian Council to become the law. And the Expediency Discernment Council was set up to arbitrate and resolve differences or conflicts between the Majlis and the Guardian Council, but the arbitration result must be approved by supreme leader. In another words, the supreme leader delegates some of his own authority to this council, and grants it supervisory powers over all branches of government. The members are chosen by supreme leader every fives years and the current chairman is still the Ayatollah and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani since 1989.

    Thus it can be seen, the Iranian political institution was mainly divided into two big systems: the religious leading system, and the government, state system. The religious leading system is in fact the monitoring system which was internally appointed by religious ruling groups. This system has absolute authority and stay beyond the government, state system.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expediency_Discernment_Council
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_Council
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Consultative_Assembly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_of_Experts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akbar_Hashemi_Rafsanjani