The Islamic Republic in Iran. Constitutional Genealogies and Institutional Development 1979-1989

This thesis analyses the political and institutional history of the Islamic Republic of Iran through the categories of “constitutional genealogies” and “institutional development”. The first part consists of two chapters, which focus on the development of Shiite Islam and the constitutional revolution of 1906, when the first constitutional text in the history of Persia was adopted. The second part (chapters 3 and 4) investigates the 1979 revolution, both from a descriptive and analytical point of view, examining the 1979 Constitution and its roots: on the one hand, the Orléanistic dualism coming from the monarchical experience, and on the other Khomeyni’s theological-political doctrine, known as “velayat-e faqih” (“guardianship of the Islamic jurist”). The institutional development of the Islamic Republic in Iran is addressed in the fifth and sixth chapters, which form the third part of the thesis. While the fifth chapter studies Iran’s political and institutional history from 1980 to 1988, assessing the actual constitutional and institutional practice in the country, the sixth chapter focuses on the periodizing moment of 1988-89, as political-institutional caesura generated from Khomeyni’s conceptualization of “absolute guardianship”, the end of the war against Iraq, Khomeyni’s death and the 1989 constitutional amendment process.

© Filippo Benedetti, 2024.