Who rules Iran?

Iran’s bitterly disputed presidential election has revealed a Byzantine system of governance. Do elections there even matter?

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
(Image credit: Creative Commons)

Isn’t the president the top dog?

He is the one who gets popularly elected, appoints Cabinets, and is answerable to Iran’s elected parliament, or Majlis. Yet the Islamic Republic of Iran is not a constitutional democracy, as Westerners understand the term. The president remains subservient to a set of institutions dominated by the clerical elite that surrounds Iran’s enigmatic supreme leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran’s politics may be democratic in appearance, but its key institutions are dedicated to safeguarding the Islamic revolution.

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