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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
The government under the monarchy had been highly centralized.
Although in theory the shah was a constitutional monarch, in
practice he wielded extraordinary power as head of state, chief
executive, and commander in chief of the armed forces. The shah was
actively involved in day-to-day decision making and played a
pivotal role as the most important formulator of national goals and
priorities.
During the Revolution, the authority that had been concentrated
in the shah and exercised through the bureaucracy based in Tehran
was severely eroded; many governmental functions were usurped by
several hundred komitehs that sprang up in urban
neighborhoods, towns, and villages throughout the country. By the
time the provisional government of Bazargan had acceded to power,
these komitehs, usually attached to local mosques, were
reluctant to surrender to the central government any of the
wide-ranging powers they had assumed. Their determination to retain
substantial power was supported by most members of the
Revolutionary Council, a body formed by Khomeini in January 1979 to
supervise the transition from monarchy to republic. The
Revolutionary Council remained independent of the provisional
government and undertook actions, or sanctioned those actions
carried out by the revolutionary committees, that were in conflict
with the policies pursued by the Bazargan cabinet. Inevitably, the
provisional government, which wanted to reestablish the authority
of the central government, would come into conflict with the
komitehs and the proliferation of revolutionary
organizations.
Bazargan's lack of essential backing from the Revolutionary
Council, and ultimately from Khomeini, made it virtually impossible
for his government to exercise effective control over arrests,
trials, the appointment of officials, military-civilian relations,
and property confiscations. Consequently, the various revolutionary
organizations and the komitehs persistently challenged the
authority of the provisional government throughout its brief
tenure. Bazargan's apparent powerlessness even extended to the
realm of foreign policy. When a group of college students overran
the United States embassy in downtown Tehran, Bazargan and his
cabinet were unable to prevent American personnel from being held
as hostages. Acknowledging the impotence of his administration,
Bazargan resigned after only nine months in office.
The issue of central versus local control that had plagued the
Bazargan government continued to be a matter of political
contention in 1987. Although the extreme diffusion of power that
characterized the Bazargan government no longer prevailed in 1987,
in comparison with the pre- revolutionary situation, political
power in Iran was relatively decentralized. This arrangement
represented a balance between two vocal factions within the
political elite. A procentralization faction has argued that the
goals of an Islamic republic can best be achieved and maintained
only if the institutions of government are strong. In contrast, a
decentralization faction has insisted that bureaucratization is
inherently destructive of long-term objectives and that the future
of the Revolution can only be ensured through extensive popular
participation in numerous revolutionary organizations.
Data as of December 1987
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