Authoritarian state building through political decentralization and local government law
Evidence from the Islamic Republic of Iran
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1029Keywords:
Iran, decentralization, local government law, nation-building, democracyAbstract
What motivates ideological authoritarian regimes to permit subnational elections? What mechanisms do these regimes employ to ensure that local electoral outcomes are favorable to the regime? Focusing on the decision to create a new tier of elected local government and the use of local government law, I argue that national elites can use local elections to strengthen state-building through increased institutionalization of mass political participation and by integrating local populations into the ambit of state controlled public goods provision. I illustrate this argument by analyzing elected local government in the Islamic Republic of Iran. I show how the state’s legal framework successfully constrains local actors in three contested domains: the scope of political participation, the extent of legislative authority, and the degree of fiscal autonomy. A major implication of these findings is that expanding participation through subnational elected government in an ideological Islamist regime contributes to authoritarian nation-state building.
Downloads
Metrics
Downloads:
PDF 2035
References
Acemoglu, D., 2013. State Building: A Political Economy Perspective Northwestern [online]. Lecture. Available from: https://economics.mit.edu/files/8819 [Accessed 13 February 2019].
Acemoglu, D., and Robinson, J.A., 2006. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511510809
Ang, Y.Y., 2016. How China Escaped the Poverty Trap. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501705854
Arjomand, S.A., 1989. The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran. New York: Oxford University Press.
Arjomand, S.A., 2000. Civil Society and the Rule of Law in the Constitutional Politics of Iran Under Khatami. Social Research [online], 67(2), 283–301. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40971474 [Accessed 13 February 2019].
Arjomand, S.A., 2012. After Khomeini: Iran Under his Successors. New York: Oxford University Press.
Avaleen dore-ye entekhabat shorahaye eslami shahr va roosta bargozar shod
)اولین دوره انتخابات شوراهای اسلامی شهر و روستا برگزار شد(
[First round of Islamic city and village councils were held], no date [online]. Available from: http://www.tarikhirani.ir/fa/events/3/EventsDetail/90/وقایع.و.رویدادها.html [Accessed 13 February 2019].
Ayee, J.R.A., 1997. The Adjustment of Central Bodies to Decentralization: The Case of the Ghanaian Bureaucracy. African Studies Review [online], 40(2), 37-57. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2307/525156 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/525156
Baktiari, B., 1996. Parliamentary Politics in Revolutionary Iran: The Institutionalization of Factional Politics. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Bardhan, P., and Mookherjee, D., 2000. Capture and Governance at Local and National Levels. The American Economic Review [online], 90(2), 135-139. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.90.2.135 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.90.2.135
Bardhan, P.K., and Mookherjee, D., eds., 2006. Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries: A Comparative Perspective. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/2297.001.0001
Bayadi, H., 2010. Tarikhcheh-ye mokhtasar entekhabat shoraha
(تاریخچه مختصر انتخابات شوراها ) [A short history of the local council elections]. Fararu [online], 29 April. Available from: https://fararu.com/fa/news/46515/تاریخچه-مختصر-انتخابات-شوراها [Accessed 13 February 2019].
Bird, R.M., and Vaillancourt, F., eds., 1998. Fiscal Decentralization in Developing Countries. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511559815
Bohlken, A.T., 2016. Democratization from Above: The Logic of Local Democracy in the Developing World. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316415658
Brownlee, J., 2007. Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization [online]. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511802348 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511802348
Brumberg, D., and Farhi, F., 2016. Introduction: Politics of Contention and Conciliation in Iran’s Semiautocracy. In: D. Brumberg and F. Farhi, eds., Power and Change in Iran: Politics of Contention and Conciliation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 1-33. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1bmzp38
Cammett, M., and Luca, D., 2018. Local winners and losers in Erdoğan’s Turkey. Economic Research Forum [online], 19 June. Belfer Center of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Available from: https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/local-winners-and-losers-erdogans-turkey [Accessed 13 February 2019].
Cheema, A., Khwaja, A.I., and Qadir, A., 2005. Decentralization in Pakistan: Context, Content and Causes. KSG Working Paper No. RWP05-034 [online]. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.739712 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.739712
Chehabi, H.E., 1997. Ardabil Becomes a Province: Center-Periphery Relations in Iran. International Journal of Middle East Studies [online], 29(2), 235-253. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743800064485 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743800064485
Cleary, M.R., 2010. Sources of Democratic Responsiveness in Mexico. University of Notre Dame Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.21995682
Cohen, J.L., 2012. Globalization and Sovereignty: Rethinking Legality, Legitimacy and Constitutionalism [online]. Cambridge University Press. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511659041 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511659041
Court of Administrative Justice, 2016. ray-e shomare 571 hayat umumi divan edalat edari ba mozu: ebtal band 25 az mosavabe sal 1393 shuraye eslami shahr Kerman...
(رأي شماره 571 هیأت عمومی دیوان عدالت اداري با موضوع: ابطال بند 25 از مصوبه سال 1393 شوراي اسلامی شهر کرمان ناظر بر برقراري عوارض فروش بلیط کنسرت ها و مراسم هاي مختلف ) Court of Administrative Justice, 21 November.
Court of Administrative Justice, 2017. mozu-e rayy: ebtal band avval payvast shomarey-e panj sanad asli tarhe jame-e shahr Tehran... 26 February
موضوع رأی: ابطال بند اول پیوست شماره پنج سند اصلی طرح جامع شھر تھران در سال 1386 و ماده 2 مصوبه تعیین ضوابط مالی و اصلاح نحوه دریافت عوارض سال 1388 شورای ا سلامی شھر تھران
Dahl, R.A., 1998. On Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Dahl, R.A., 1998. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. 26. print. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Distelhorst, G., and Hou, Y., 2017. Constituency Service under Nondemocratic Rule: Evidence from China. The Journal of Politics [online], 79(3), 1024-1040. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1086/690948 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/690948
Eaton, K., 2003. Can Politicians Control Bureaucrats? Applying Theories of Political Control to Argentina’s Democracy. Latin American Politics and Society [online], 45(4), 33-62. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2003.tb00257.x [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2003.tb00257.x
Ebel, R.D., and Yilmaz, S., 2002. On the Measurement and Impact of Fiscal Decentralization. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Nº. 2809 [online]. March. Available from: https://ssrn.com/abstract=636092 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-2809
Esmaili, G.H., 2017. Gelaye-ye rais dadgostari tehran az taeed salahiat barkhi mahkumeen amniati baraye entekhab shoraye shahr
(گلایه رئیس دادگستری تهران از تایید صلاحیت برخی محکومین امنیتی برای انتخابات شورای شهر)
[Head of Tehran Judiciary complains about the approval of political dissidents to stand in local elections]. Mizan [online], 10 May. Available from: http://www.mizanonline.com/fa/news/307607/گلایه-رئیس-دادگستری-تهران-از-تایید-صلاحیت-برخی-محکومین-امنیتی-برای-انتخابات-شورای-شهر-انتظار-می%E2%80%8Cرفت-به-سوابق-محکومیتی-افراد-عنایت-بیشتری-می%E2%80%8Cشد [Accessed 13 February 2019].
Fukuyama, F., 2012. The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution. 1st paperback ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Gandhi, J., and Lust-Okar, E., 2009. Elections Under Authoritarianism. Annual Review of Political Science [online], 12(1), 403-422. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.060106.095434 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.060106.095434
Gandhi, J., and Przeworski, A., 2006. Cooperation, cooptation, and rebellion under dictatorships. Economics and Politics [online], 18(1), 1-26. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0343.2006.00160.x [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0343.2006.00160.x
Gheissari, A., and Nasr, S.V.R., 2006. Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/0195189671.001.0001
Ghobadzadeh, N., and Rahim, L.Z., 2016. Electoral theocracy and hybrid sovereignty in Iran. Contemporary Politics [online], 22(4), 450-468. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2016.1175097 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2016.1175097
Grindle, M.S., 2009. Going Local: Decentralization, and the Promise of Good Governance. 1st paperback print. Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400830350
Harris, K., 2017. A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in Iran. Oakland: University of California Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520965843
Hashemi, N., 2014. Renegotiating Iran’s Post-Revolutionary Social Contract. In: M. Kamrava, ed., Beyond the Arab Spring [online]. Oxford University Press, pp. 191–222. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199384419.003.0008 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199384419.003.0008
Huntington, S.P., 2006. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ivanyna, M., and Shah, A., 2012. How Close Is Your Government to Its People? Worldwide Indicators on Localization and Decentralization. Policy Research Working Paper 6138 [online]. Washington, DC: World Bank. Available from: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/534401468340175192/pdf/WPS6138.pdf [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-6138
Jackiewicz, A., 2012. The Principles of Unitarism, Subsidiarity and Decentralization As A Constitutional Basis Of Regional Self-Government Of The Republic Of Poland. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric [online], 31(44), 175-189. Available from: http://logika.uwb.edu.pl/studies/download.php?volid=44&artid=ja&format=PDF [Accessed 13 February 2019].
Javadi-Amoli, A., 2010. Vali Faqih, Vali Feqahat va Edalat (لایت فقیه ، ولایت فقاهت و عدالت)
Qom: Esra.
Kadivar, M.A., 2013. Alliances and Perception Profiles in the Iranian Reform Movement, 1997 to 2005. American Sociological Review [online], 78(6), 1063-1086. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122413508285 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122413508285
Kamrava, M., 2001. The Civil Society Discourse in Iran. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies [online], 28(2), 165-185. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/13530190120083068 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13530190120083068
Kamrava, M., 2014. The Rise and Fall of Ruling Bargains in the Middle East. In: M. Kamrava, ed., Beyond the Arab Spring. Oxford University Press, pp. 17-46. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199384419.003.0002 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199384419.003.0002
Katznelson, I., 2003. Desolation and enlightenment: political knowledge after total war, totalitarianism, and the Holocaust [online]. New York: Columbia University Press. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/katz11194 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/katz11194
Keshavarzian, A., 2005. Contestation without democracy: elite fragmentation in Iran. In: M.A. Posusney and M.P. Angrist, eds., Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Regimes and Resistance. Boulder: Lynne Rienner. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781685850852-005
Khatam, A., 2000. Kongereye manshur shahr Tehran: avaleen tajrobeye tadvin yek misaq shahri (کنگره منشور تهران: اولین تجربه تدوین یک میثاق شهری) [Tehran Charter Congress: The first ever experience of a city charter]. Gofte-Gu, 30(30), 184–87.
Khemani, S., 2015. Political Capture of Decentralization [online]. In: J.P. Faguet and C. Pöschl, eds., Is Decentralization Good for Development? Oxford University Press, pp. 196–223. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198737506.003.0009 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198737506.003.0009
Landry, P.F., 2008. Decentralized Authoritarianism in China: The Communist Party’s Control of Local Elites in the Post-Mao Era. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511510243
Lewis, J.I., 2014. When Decentralization Leads to Recentralization: Subnational State Transformation in Uganda. Regional & Federal Studies [online], 24(5), 571-588. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/13597566.2014.971771 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13597566.2014.971771
Linz, J.J., 1975. Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes. In: F.I. Greenstein and N.W. Polsby, eds., Handbook of Political Science (vol. 3). Reading: Addison-Wesley, 182-83.
Linz, J.J., and Stepan, A.C., 1996. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Majlis Proceedings. Local Council Bill. May 24, 1994. Session #228, 3/3/1373.
Majlis Proceedings. Conformance Committee bill. May 9, 2016.
Manion, M., 1996. The Electoral Connection in the Chinese Countryside. American Political Science Review [online], 90(04), 736-748. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2307/2945839 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2945839
Mann, M., 2012. The Sources of Social Power (vol. 2) 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Mansuri, G., and Rao, V., 2012. Localizing Development: Does Participation Work? Washington, DC: World Bank. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-8256-1
Misbah Yazdi, M.T. (with Subhani, K., ed.), 2001. Nazariyyeh-ye Siyasi-ye Islam - Qanunguzari [Political Theory in Islam] (vol. 2). Qom: Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute.
Mookherjee, D., 2015. Political Decentralization. Annual Review of Economics [online], 7(1), 231-249. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-080614-115527 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-080614-115527
Mousazadeh, I., and Sohrablu, A., 1394. Salahiat vaze avarez va usul hakem bar an dar parto araye divan edalat edari
صلاحیت وضع عوارض و اصول حاکم بر آن در پرتو آرای دیوان عدالت اداری
فصلنامه دانش حقوق عمومي (سال چهارم، شماره 4), 89–110
[Taxing Authority in Iran in light of the rulings of the Court of Administration Justice]. Faslnameh Danesh hughugh umumi (Year 4, No. 4), 110-89
Nisbet, R.A., 1976. Emile Durkheim. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Nisbet, R.A., 2010. The quest for community: a study in the ethics of order and freedom. New critical ed. Wilmington: ISI Books.
OECD/UCLG, 2016. Subnational Governments around the World: Structure and Finance [online]. Available from: https://www.oecd.org/regional/regional-policy/Subnational-Governments-Around-the-World-%20Part-I.pdf, p. 20 [Accessed 12 February 2019].
Offe, C., 1998. “Homogeneity” and Constitutional Democracy: Coping with Identity Conflicts through Group Rights. Journal of Political Philosophy [online], 6(2), 113–141. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9760.00049 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9760.00049
Offe, C., 2006. Political Disaffection as an Outcome of Institutional Practices? Some Post-Tocquevillean Speculations. In: M. Torcal and J.R. Montero, eds., Political Disaffection in Contemporary Democracies: Social Capital, Institutions and Politics. London/New York: Routledge.
Parsa, M., 2016. Democracy in Iran: Why it Failed and How it Might Succeed. Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674970434
Putnam, R.D. (with R. Leonardi and R. Nanetti), 1994. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. 5. print., 1. Princeton paperback print. Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400820740
Reuter, O.J., et al., 2016. Local Elections in Authoritarian Regimes: An Elite-Based Theory with Evidence From Russian Mayoral Elections. Comparative Political Studies [online], 49(5), 662-697. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414015626439 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414015626439
Sarabi, F., 1994. The Post-Khomeini Era in Iran: The Elections of the Fourth Islamic Majlis. Middle East Journal [online], 48(1), 89–107. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4328663 [Accessed 13 February 2019].
Schedler, A., ed., 2006. Electoral Authoritarianism: The Dynamics of Unfree Competition. Boulder: Lynne Rienner. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781685857479
Schirazi, A., 1998. The Constitution of Iran: Politics and the State in the Islamic Republic. Trans.: J. O’Kane. Paperback ed. London: I.B. Tauris.
Stack, K.M., 2015. An Administrative Jurisprudence: The Rule of Law in the Administrative State. Columbia Law Review [online], 115(7), 1985-2018. Available from: https://columbialawreview.org/content/an-administrative-jurisprudence-the-rule-of-law-in-the-administrative-state-2/ [Accessed 13 February 2019].
Tajbakhsh, K., 2006. Decentralization, Municipal Management and Local Economic Development in Iran. Draft, unpublished. Washington, DC: World Bank, Finance, Private Sector Development and Infrastructure Group Middle East and North Africa Region, May.
Tajbakhsh, K., 2019. What are Iranians Dreaming about Today? Three Narratives of Transition and Utopia. Social Research: An International Quarterly [online], 86(1). Available from: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/725998 [Accessed 20 May 2020]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/sor.2019.0013
Tajzadeh, M., 2017. Gofte-gu Hossein Dehbashi ba Mostafa Tajzadeh.
(خشت خام /نوبت چهاردهم/ گفتگوی حسین دهباشی با مصطفی تاج زاده). [A conversation with Mostafa Tajzadeh by Hossein Dehbashi] (Video clip). Tarikh Online [online], 20 January. Available from: https://www.aparat.com/v/zQBlW/خشت_خام_%2Fنوبت_چهاردهم%2F_گفتگوی_حسین_دهباشی_با_مصطفی_تاج [Accessed 13 February 2019].
Teets, J.C., 2014. Civil Society under Authoritarianism: The China Model [online]. New York: Cambridge University Press. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139839396 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139839396
Tezcür, G.M., 2012. Democracy promotion, authoritarian resiliency, and political unrest in Iran. Democratization [online], 19(1), 120–140. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2012.641296 [Accessed 13 February 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2012.641296
The Iran Social Science Data Portal, no date. Political Parties. The Iran Social Science Data Portal [online]. Available from: http://irandataportal.syr.edu/political-parties [Accessed 13 February 2019].
Tilly, C., 1975. Reflections on the History of European State-Making. In: C. Tilly, ed., The Formation of National States in Western Europe. Princeton University Press.
Truex, R., 2016. Making Autocracy Work: Representation and Responsiveness in Modern China. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316771785
Weber, M. (with G. Roth and C. Wittich, eds.), 2013. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (vols. 1–2). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wimmer, A., 2018. Nation Building: Why Some Countries Come Together While Others Fall Apart. Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400888894
Woloch, I., 1994. The New Regime: Transformations of the French Civic Order, 1789-1820s. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton.
Wu, F., Xu, J., and Yeh, A.G.O., 2007. Urban Development in Post-Reform China: State, Market, and Space. Abingdon/New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203962985
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Kian Tajbakhsh
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
OSLS strictly respects intellectual property rights and it is our policy that the author retains copyright, and articles are made available under a Creative Commons licence. The Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution No-Derivatives licence is our default licence, further details available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 If this is not acceptable to you, please contact us.
The non-exclusive permission you grant to us includes the rights to disseminate the bibliographic details of the article, including the abstract supplied by you, and to authorise others, including bibliographic databases, indexing and contents alerting services, to copy and communicate these details.
For information on how to share and store your own article at each stage of production from submission to final publication, please read our Self-Archiving and Sharing policy.
The Copyright Notice showing the author and co-authors, and the Creative Commons license will be displayed on the article, and you must agree to this as part of the submission process. Please ensure that all co-authors are properly attributed and that they understand and accept these terms.
