The Strangling of the Republican Pillar in Iran

This chapter examines the intensifying tension between the Islamic Republic’s two pillars, focusing in particular on the Leader–President rivalry during the Khatami and Ahmadinejad presidencies. Although Khatami made the strengthening of rule of law and civil society the central theme of his administration, ultimately he was unable to prevent the emasculation of the Republican pillar in the hands of the Supreme Leader and his traditionalist supporters. I argue that the Iranian regime lost its hybrid character along with much of its popular legitimacy following widespread allegations of mass fraud and crackdown following the 2009 presidential election. Political contestation in the period between the suppression of the ‘Green Movement’ in 2009 and the election of Hassan Rouhani as president in 2013 took place in the shape of byzantine palace intrigues in an environment of extreme social and institutional distrust and growing regional tensions, during which neo-conservative Ahmadinejad posed a highly unexpected and destabilising threat to the clerical establishment.