Given its structure, the Islamic Republic in Iran is ostensibly a semi-democratic government. It is true that the regime has a lifelong Supreme Leader, but on the other hand it also boasts a Montesquieu-esque separation of powers, and each of the three branches of the government seem to exercise a degree of independence in deliberation and action. Most importantly, the regime regularly holds elections in which people vote for apparently different candidates.
But the truth is that the Islamic Republic is one of the most authoritarian regimes in human history. Why, then, in spite of all these colorful elections, the Islamic Republic is an inherently authoritarian regime? The answer is that the regime is consciously taking advantage of a democratic process to reproduce authoritarianism.
From the very beginning of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the leaders of the regime constituted the function of elections in Iran as a demonstration of public support for the political interests of a particular class. Accordingly, unlike the free world, elections in Iran are not intended to lead to a change of leadership, but to the bolstering of the ruling class.
To maintain the illusion of elections, the regime engineers the process in three main stages and many more sub-phases. 1) The first stage is the Guardian Council, where only the candidates endorsed by the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guards are approved. 2) The second stage is government and media propaganda in the domestic and international scene, showcasing the elections as free, fair, competitive and influential in the affairs of the nation. 3) The third stage is vote-rigging, in which the designated candidate of the Supreme Leader and the IRGC is announced as having received the highest vote.
Whoever comes out of the regime’s ballot box, their main task is to advance the interests of those in power, which almost always conflicts with the interests of the people outside of power. As such, elections in Iran at best do not change the situation, and under normal circumstances only worsen the conditions. Elections, ideally, are supposed to ensure continuity of change – not maintenance of the status quo.
However, there is no circulation of power in Iran. The Islamic Republic is a totalitarian oligarchy ruled by two Islamist clerical and military components that are almost inseparably intertwined. By instituting an authoritarian constitution and taking over almost all the financial resources and coercive forces of the nation, these two have established themselves in key positions of power for life.
There is no way that popular participation in the regime’s closed circle of elections can bring about any meaningful change in Iran. The Supreme Leader honestly and explicitly maintains that “every single vote cast in the ballot box is in effect a vote for the principle of the Islamic government and shows that people have complete trust in the system.” In fact, Khamenei counts so much on popular participation to promote the legitimacy of his regime that he recently damned absenteeism as a “grave sin” and declared casting blank ballots “haram,” which means forbidden by religion.
As such, betting everything on an extremely shaky nuclear deal with the top state sponsor of terrorism and hoping that whatever comes out of its Pandora’s box of elections will be in our best interest does not bode well at all. Not to mention that we have already been down that path; not once, but quite a couple of times. Trying – and repeatedly failing – in that endeavor for two decades has only pushed Iran further and further away from the West, into the arms of the more dangerous Oriental despots in Russia and China. When the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei manages to conjure one of his minions out of the ballot box in a week, the circle of his “Look to the East” policy will become complete.
The path to peace and stability in the Middle East passes not through but across the apocalyptic alliance of the Ayatollahs and the Guards. That is something Western leaders need to keep in mind when they soon go back to Vienna to resuscitate the disastrous nuclear deal and once more grant legitimacy to the Islamofascist regime in Iran.
The author is a political theorist, historian, and analyst.