Vol. 8 No. 1 (January 1998) pp. 75-77.

THE CONSTITUTION OF IRAN: POLITICS AND THE STATE IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC, by Asghar Schirazi.  Translated by John O'Kane. London and N.Y.: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 1997. 325 pp. Cloth $69.50 ISBN 1-86064-046-x.

Reviewed by Manoucher R. Khosrowshahi, Division of Liberal and Fine Arts, Tyler Junior College, Tyler, Texas. E-mail: Manoucher Khosrowshahi <MKHO@tjc.tyler.cc.tx.us>.
 

Generally speaking, books on Iranian politics suffer from being pro or con the Islamic Republic of Iran. In this book, Asghar Schirazi avoids these flaws. Objectivity guides him in collecting the data and analyzing them throughout the book. The author utilizes primary sources along with the Iranian press to explain the inherent contradictions within the constitution and the Islamic State's policies. The book is rich in examples and factual information to support the main thesis. An extensive bibliographic reference at the end of each chapter enhances the book's value to the entire scholarly community. This book is a valuable and significant addition to Iranian and constitutional studies.

The book has four parts and sixteen chapters. Part I describes the major contradictions of the constitution with examples and reference to articles of the Iran's constitution and laws. Parts II and III deal with the practical resolution of the contradictions in the process of legislation and governing. Part IV describes some of the ways different Islamic groups have reacted to the experience of a "real" Islamic state. Finally, the concluding chapter discusses the transformation that has taken place in Iran since the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

The author argues that the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran has a number of contradictions. Among the many contradictions, two have had a decisive impact on the development of the Islamic Republic State since the revolution. First, there is a contradiction between the religious and secular elements. The second is the contradiction between its democratic and anti-democratic elements. These two major contradictions provide the central theme of this book.

One of the main thesis of the book is that VELAYAT-E FAQIH is the guiding principle of the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to this principle, political power emanates from God alone and is transferred from God to the Islamic jurists; it does not depend upon the voice of the people for its legitimization. Therefore, the sovereignty of the Islamic jurists annuls the sovereignty of the people. The concept of VELAYAT-E FAQIH reduces the idea of a republic to a religious despotism. The author describes such a republic as an absolute hierocracy. In such a government, the power of the ruling jurists is absolute. The leader exercises the function of a legal guardian, a protector and a liberator of his own people. The people are not active subjects of the state but the state's objects. Furthermore, given the alleged perfection of the SHARI'A, there is no need for a legislature. Parliament is not to function as a legislative body, but merely as an "institution for planning".

Schirazi explains that as a result of incorporation of the concept of VELAYAT-E FAQIH , the sovereignty of the people was eliminated from the constitution because the institutions set up by the constitution to represent the people (parliament, the presidency and the Assembly of Leadership Experts) either lost their representative character as a result of rigged elections or relinquished their powers to other state organs not chosen by the people.

According to the constitution, the SHARI'A (Islamic laws and tradition) is the judicial basis for the Islamic Republic. Despite this claim, the constitution contains important elements which have been borrowed, not from the SHARI'A, but from Western democratic principles. For example, "constitution" (QANUN-ASASI), "law" (QANUN), "sovereignty of the people" (HAKEMIYAT-E MELLI), "nation" (MELLAT), "the rights of the nation" (HOQUQ-E MELLAT), "the legislature" (QOVVEH-E MOQANNANEH), "the judiciary" (QOVVEH-E QAZA'IYEH), "parliament" (MAJLES), "republic" (JOMHURI), "consultation of the people" (HAMEH-E PORSI), and "elections" (ENTEKHABAT) are some of the concepts that are borrowed from the west.

Since the revolution, the regime has passed what amounts to a mountain of laws, statutory instruments, resolutions, and statutes that have no demonstrable relationship to the SHARI'A. In the past, the Islamic Republic has tried to bypass obstacles that have arisen from the disunity with regard to the SHARI'A's positions of the forces participating in legislation. In practice, the regime has increasingly abandoned the ground of SHARI'A. The so-called rule of emergency (QA'EDEH-E ZARURAT) is often used to circumvent the SHARI'A. According to the rule, emergencies make it permissible to do what is forbidden. In fact, whenever the interests of the ruling class were at stake, the Islamic Republic suspended the primary Islamic ordinances and resorted to the principle of necessity (MASLAHAT) to justify various government actions. As a result, the government has been reactive to needs of the Iranian people and issues of modernization. Islamic laws and SHARI'A has only been applied to a few rudimentary areas of social life at times through different forms of violence.

The author explains that the Islamic Republic imposed varieties of restrictions on the sovereignty of people and democratic rights in the name of "Islamic Principles". One example is the imposition of restrictions on the eligibility of political candidates, which is subject to arbitrary interpretation. Another example of the suppression of the people's sovereignty is manipulating votes. A large number of people vote out of fear of reprisals. In fact, participation in elections is regularly recorded by stamping a person's identity card. People who do not have such a stamp must, when dealing with the authorities, worry about being classified as opponents of the regime.

To this day, the Islamic republic does not allow any formation of opposition parties. The prohibition of opposition parties was justified by the claim that a religious community could not allow itself to be split into parties. A community that moves towards one common goal, led by a wise leader who is God's representative, could have no reason to allow itself to be divided.

The suppression of the opposition press is another example of limiting democratic rights. Of the 444 newspapers and magazines that had appeared during the first year after the revolution, less than a quarter remained in print today. They were without exception loyal to the regime. A short-lived initial freedom for the other means of mass communication, artists, and writers gave way to long-term strangulation.

The author argues that democratic elements were included in the constitution, but never enforced. In fact, the democratic principles were eliminated in the process of practical running of the state, in particular by concentrating power in the hands of the leader, undermining and disempowering representative institutions, and suppressing fundamental democratic rights. From the highest to the lowest level of the government apparatus, officials attempt to use their position to acquire personal advantage over rivals in the system and to promote the interests of their clients.

The process of adapting the application of the constitution to the concept of absolute VELAYAT-E FAQIH was accompanied by the intensive take over of almost all three branches of government by the clergy and many other less important posts to their lay supporters or those related to them by family ties. The clergy's monopoly on power could not have been assured solely by means of the state and security apparatus that existed before the revolution. New institutions such as security organizations, special courts, organizations for propaganda and supervision, and economic institutions had to be created. From the outset of the revolution, the new political system tried to involve its supporters in intelligence gathering and security. People were called upon to act as informants and to pass information about opposition activities in their neighborhoods or work place to the official security organizations.

While members of the clergy have held on to their turbans and robes, they have increasingly taken over the offices of state and thus neglected their religious duties. Schirazi argues that religious despotism is established through violence by hypocrites in religious dress. Indeed, they have been transformed into state functionaries. Some scholars even classify Iran as a form of Caesaropapism.

The clergy's access to state resources of income has resulted in a luxurious life style for the ruling class. Before the 1979 revolution, the clergy received money for performance of religious services in the form of fees. After the revolution, they draw a salary from the state treasury. The access of the ruling clergy to state sources of income has led to increasing independence from the people. This independence is enhanced by the fact that to a large extent, the state does not acquire its revenue through taxation, which would make it dependent on the people and the private sector, but through oil revenues over which it has exclusive control.

Finally, the author concludes that by and large, the ruling clergy presents a unified front against its opponents outside the regime. But those within the regime attempt to exclude one another from power and compete on the basis of political, economic and other interests, including ideological orientation. Under the Islamic Republic, there is no positive criticism and creative participation. The government has taken away people's initiative and creative resources and made them into passive consumers.

This is a "must read" book for scholars of Iranian studies, politicians who make policy decision about Iran, theologians, philosophers, students of law and law ad politics, and journalists. It is a well-documented book describing the Islamic Republic of Iran's real nature. I have not seen the original book. However, the English translation is well done.


Copyright 1998