c. The presidency and both chambers of the legislature have been controlled
by the same political party since 1999, but there has been frequent conflict
between the president and the legislature.
5. Judiciary
a. Supreme Court, a Court of Appeal, and system of state courts
b. Courts lost independence during military rule but have begun to be more
independent of president and legislators since the return to democracy.
c. Twelve northern states with predominantly Muslim populations have been
allowed to establish Shari’a courts based on Muslim law.
D. State and Society
1. Nigeria’s political parties are regionally based and do not offer competing
programs to address social and economic problems.
2. People’s Democratic Party (PDP) the most successful
a. PDP has controlled presidency and both houses of legislature since 1999.
b. Until 2011 election, the party had power-sharing arrangement in which the
presidency alternated between a Muslim from the north and a Christian
from the south.
c. In the 2011 election, however, the party selected Goodluck Jonathan, a
southerner, as its candidate. Northern Muslims rioted in response.
i. Riots were evidence that religious identity is becoming a cause of
violent conflict in Nigeria.
ii. Mainstream northern politicians began to seek votes by playing on
Muslim identity and insecurities.
iii. Problems created an opening for a violent Islamic radical movement
“Boko Haram.”
iv. Their proposed solution to northern problems is to create a society
based on fundamentalist Islam.
v. Boko Haram militants initially targeted police officers and Nigerian
soldiers for assassination.
vi. In 2013, they began killing school teachers and students in
government schools as well.
3. Civil society more active since return to democracy
a. Business associations
i. Make demands on government for less corruption, better roads, more
reliable electricity, and fewer obstacles to starting businesses.
ii. Effectiveness undercut by tendency of individual businesspeople to
go directly to officials or politicians to solve problems.
iii. Ability to act collectively has also been hampered by ethnic and
religious differences.
b. Labor associations
i. Have demanded laws to improve working conditions.
ii. Effective in calling strikes to block increases in fuel prices.
iii. Ability to act collectively has been undercut by ethnic and religious
differences.
iv. Moreover, some union victories have had ambivalent results.
E. Political culture
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1. Nigerians support democracy, although with less enthusiasm than in 2000,
when the nation returned to civilian rule.
2. A substantial majority believes democracy is preferable to any other form of
government.
3. On the other hand, majority of Nigerians regard their country as a democracy
facing major problems.
4. Substantial numbers of citizens make an effort to stay informed about
government activities.
5. A majority agrees that it is proper for citizens to question the actions of
government officials.
6. Corrupt behavior and poor performance takes a toll on social capital.
7. Nigerians have low levels of trust in government institutions.
F. Political economy
1. Struggle among political elites to gain access to the revenues produced by
Nigeria’s abundant oil wealth is central theme of Nigerian political economy
2. Politicians have extended the state’s role into every major economic sector in
order to create rents.
a. Rents are artificially high profits created by the availability of scarce,
valuable natural resources such as oil, or by state action to limit
competition for goods and services.
b. Much private business activity takes the form of rent-seeking, or getting
access to rents.
c. Takes the form of lobbying officials to win contracts.
3. Nigeria has lacked institutions to provide incentives for private businesses to
engage in large-scale industry and manufacturing.
a. Property rights weak
b. Regulations to prevent cheating weak
c. Poor infrastructure
4. There has been faster economic growth since return of democracy.
a. Democracy has created more political stability.
b. President Obasanjo appointed technocrats to reform banking and financial
industry.
c. New regulations requiring competitive bidding on state contracts have
reduced the costs of the contracts.
d. Over 100 inefficient state enterprises privatized.
e. Growth averaged a very high 7 percent between 2003 and 2007, with most
of growth coming from wholesale and retail, transportation,
telecommunications, and manufacturing.
f. Still a long way to go to create institutions that can sustain growth over the
long run.
g. Growth did little to improve the well-being of many Nigerians.
VI. ELECTORAL AUTHORITARIANISM
A. Distinguishing features
1. Use of competitive multiparty elections to mask reality of authoritarian rule.
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2. Several parties allowed to compete for seats in the legislature and for the
position of chief executive
3. Main form is rule by a dominant political party that allows other parties to
compete in elections, with electoral rules tilted strongly in favor of ruling
party.
4. Opposition parties have little chance of taking power.
B. The most stable electoral authoritarian regimes have a strong ruling party.
1. This kind of party provides a forum for sorting out disputes.
2. Important for organizing campaigns for the party’s candidates in elections.
3. Provide an institutionalized means for recruiting new members and making
changes in leadership.
4. Regimes that govern without a ruling party have to find other ways of
balancing interests and selecting leaders.
5. Examples include Iran, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.
VII. IRAN
A. Introduction
1. Two features make Iranian elections different from those in Brazil or Nigeria.
a. Ultimate power is held by the Supreme Leader, who is not elected by
popular vote.
b. Candidates for president must be approved by a council whose members
are appointed by the Supreme Leader.
2. These restrictions do not make elections meaningless.
a. Candidates must stay within boundaries set by Supreme Leader for debate,
but they may have different approaches to issues.
b. Moreover, the Supreme Leader’s favored candidate sometimes loses, as
happened in 2013.
B. Historical background
1. Iran know as Persia
a. For most of its 2,500 year history, Iran was known as Persia.
b. In the sixth century BC, the Persian Empire controlled a much larger
territory than present-day Iran.
c. Was not a Muslim country
2. Arab conquest and conversion to Islam
a. Arab conquerors brought Islam with them.
b. Turkic invaders seized the country in 1501 and subsequently converted the
population to Shite Islam.
3. Shiites and Sunnis
a. Less than 20 percent of the world’s Muslims are Shiite Muslims—vast
majority are Sunni.
b. Split between the two dates to seventh century over the succession to the
Prophet Muhammad.
i. Shiites believe the Prophet’s hereditary successors known as Imams
should have succeeded him.
ii. The twelfth Imam is known as the Mahdi.
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iii. Shiites believe he did not die but was hidden by God in 941 and will
return as a messiah to establish just rule on earth.
iv. The clerics who now rule Iran believe they are the legitimate rulers
of Iran until the Mahdi returns.
4. European dominance
a. European imperial powers Britain and Russia extended their power into
Persia in the nineteenth century.
b. Left the Turkic dynasty that ruled Persia in place but increasingly took
control of Persia’s economy and its oil
c. Colonel Reza Khan overthrew the Turkic dynasty and established his own
Pahlavi dynasty.
d. He sought to Westernize Persia and to build a modern state and army.
e. He was the leader who changed the name of the country from Persia to
Iran in 1935.
f. He was ousted by the British and Russians in 1941 and designated his son
as Reza Shah Pahlavi.
5. Democratic interim
a. After World War II, Iran experienced a brief period of democratic politics.
b. Iranians elected Mohammed Mossadegh as prime minister.
c. After he attempted to wrest control of Iran’s oil from the British, the
British government and the American CIA backed a revolt by military
officers and clerics to oust him from power.
d. The British and Americans returned Shah Pahlavi to power.
6. Shah Pahlavi years
a. The Shah’s authoritarian attempts to develop Iran’s economy and
Westernize its culture angered many sectors of the Iranian population.
b. They focused their anger on the U.S. as well because of its backing for the
Shah.
7. The Iranian Islamic Revolution
a. The anger at the Shah was channeled into a revolution whose leader
became Islamic cleric Ruhollah Khomeni.
b. He led a broad coalition against the Shah, and after the Shah was forced to
leave Iran, another struggle began among the elements of this coalition.
c. Khomeini and his followers won the struggle to shape a new Iranian state.
d. The guiding concept of the new state was velayat-e-faqih.
i. Translates as “guardianship of the jurisprudent”
iii. Such a regime, in which rulers claim to be divinely guided, is known
as a theocracy.
8. Consolidating the revolution
a. One step was to strip power from leaders who wanted a secular democratic
state.
b. The other was to consolidate control over the population.
c. Two events particularly helpful in consolidating control.
i. Students’ seizure of the American Embassy in 1979 and holding
diplomats for 444 days
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ii. Iraq’s attack on Iran in 1980
d. Both helped Khomeini rally Iranians to join with him in standing up
against powerful foreign enemies.
C. The state
1. Constitution designed by Khomeini and his advisers
2. Divides state into elected and nonelected institutions with real power in
nonelected institutions
3. Unelected
a. Supreme Leader the most powerful
i. Main responsibility to ensure that state agencies function in line with
Islamic principles
ii. Decides main policies of the state
iii. Appoints head of judiciary
iv. Has direct control over the regular army and the Revolutionary
Guards
v. Current leader is Ayatollah Khamenei, whose name should not be
confused with that of Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic
Revolution.
b. Guardian Council (12 members)
i. Six of 12 appointed by Supreme Leader—other six by the head of
the judiciary who is chosen by the Supreme Leader
ii. Can block parliamentary bills incompatible with Islamic law
iii. Can block candidates from participating in parliamentary elections
c. Expediency Council
i. Members selected by Supreme Leader
ii. Arbitrates conflicts between parliament and Guardian Council
4. Elected
a. President
i. Elected by popular vote for four-year term.
ii. Only men can run for president.
iii. Controls day-to-day operation of the government and cabinet
ministries.
iv. Candidates can run only after being screened by Supreme Leader.
v. Winner of election must be confirmed by Supreme Leader.
b. Assembly of Experts
i. Elected by popular vote
ii. Chooses Supreme Leader and supervises his activities
iii. Leaves appearance that the voters indirectly elect the Supreme
Leader
iv. Candidates for the Assembly of Experts are carefully screened by the
Guardian Council, half of whose members are chosen by the
Supreme Leader and the other half by the head of the judiciary, who
is chosen by the Supreme Leader.
c. Parliament (Majles)
i. Unicameral legislature
ii. Elected for four-year terms by popular vote
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iii. Women can be members of the Majles
iv. Approves cabinet and can question cabinet members about their
policies and administration
v. Approves legislation
vi. Candidates are screened by the Guardian Council, and the Guardian
Council can block bills.
5. Power sharing is accomplished by balancing struggles among factions for
control of state offices.
a. The state institutions described above are the main prizes in the struggle
for power in Iran.
b. The Supreme Leader is the arbiter of factional struggles to control the
state.
c. The leaders of the factions are all “insiders” who have been involved in
Iranian politics at high levels.
d. In the past, Khamenei made efforts to balance factions’ access to state
offices and revenues.
e. More recently, he has favored the conservative faction.
6. Four major factions have dominated the struggle for power.
a. Conservative faction is the most powerful
i. Dismissive of democratic institutions and civil and political rights
ii. Believes the main purpose of the state is to realize God’s will on
earth and clerics should be the one’s to interpret God’s will
iii. Strict dress codes for women, bans on consumption of alcohol, resist
decadent Western culture
iv. Generally supportive of merchants, not industrialists
v. Rhetorical support for poor
vi. Confrontation with U.S. and strong support for nuclear program
vii. Hostile toward the U.S. and suspicious of its motives
b. Pragmatists
i. Concerned that the conservative dismissal of any role for
democratically elected institutions undermines support for regime
ii. Less conservative in cultural policy and believe conservatives’
cultural policies are causing regime to lose support among young
people
iii. Main focus is developing a competitive industrial economy using
markets and foreign investment
iv. Way to improve lives of poor is through economic growth and
creating more jobs
v. Need better relations with West to develop such an economy
c. Reformists
i. Less powerful than previous two factions
ii. Islam and democracy can coexist, and Supreme Leader must defer to
elected institutions
iii. Support economic reforms to promote economic development
iv. Improve lives of poor through economic development and having
more political influence through elected institutions
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v. Want loosened cultural controls over women, freer press
vi. A main focus is improving relations with West
d. Principlists
i. Had its greatest influence during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s first term
as president, from 2005 to 2009.
ii. They criticized leaders of the older generation for abandoning the
goals of the revolution, and becoming corrupt.
iii. Ahmadinejad presented himself as a leader who spoke for ordinary
people and stood up to the rich and powerful.
iv. Re-elected president in 2009 with the backing of Supreme Leader
Khamenei, but later had a falling out with him.
v. Without control of the presidency, this faction has little power.
e. Factions and elections
i. The Guardian Council typically allows at least one pragmatic or
reformer candidate in presidential elections.
ii. These sometimes win, as was the case in 2013.
iii. Winner was Hassan Rouhani, supported by leaders of the pragmatist
and reformist factions, but not favored by Khamenei.
D. State and society
1. Present leaders have used three main strategies to maintain authoritarian
control.
2. Building support by using policies and programs targeted to benefit certain
groups.
a. Target conservative, and rural residents by appealing to conservative
moral values and promising social justice.
i. Created an interventionist-redistributive social contract to meet this
end.
ii. Benefits include state subsidies to offset costs of basic necessities,
and income support.
iii. Middle class has benefitted from this social contract via public
education, state pensions, and low health care costs and gas prices.
b. Targeted benefits also go to members of their own faction.
i. Example: Semipublic charitable organizations known as bonyads
ii. Revolutionary Guards
3. Holding regularly scheduled elections for presidency and parliament.
4. Repression to maintain control over organizations that link state and society.
a. Political parties are weak, and most are formed to support a particular
candidate
b. Weak organization
c. Small membership
d. Must win government approval, and can be denied permits if deemed anti-
Islamic
e. Leaders can be and have been arrested for advocating significant change.
5. Labor unions
a. Independent labor unions not allowed
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b. Workers can establish Islamic Labor Councils that have to be approved by
state agency
c. Harsh crackdowns and arrests of labor leaders who organize protests or
strikes
6. Social movements
a. Social movements are an alternative to way of making demands on the
state.
i. Iran has a strong women’s movement
ii. Women still face discrimination in access to jobs and in legal status.
b. Regime cracks down hard on social movements threatening its hold on
power.
i. Best recent example is the Green Movement
ii. Emerged during 2009 presidential election to support candidacy of
Mousavi against Ahmadinejad.
iii. Engaged in massive protests after challenging election results.
iv. Government leaders responded violently to stop protests. More than
a hundred protestors were murdered, and thousands imprisoned.
E. Political culture
1. Nationalism and history
a. According to a 2006 survey, 91 percent of Iranians were said to be “very”
or “quite” proud of their country.
b. Strong sense of nationalism, resentment of past humiliations.
c. Iran’s leaders draw on and stoke resentments.
d. Play on nationalistic feelings to defend nuclear program.
2. Democracy
a. Large majority say they want a democratic political system.
b. Social trust, however, is low.
c. Many Iranians long for a strong leader.
3. Role of government
a. Iranians strongly believe that the government should provide for them
economically.
b. Many distrust private ownership of businesses, especially large industrial
corporations.
c. Many also support having more government ownership of business.
F. Political economy
1. For decades, Iran had an interventionist-redistributive social contract.
a. Terms were that state would provide benefits to a wide variety of groups
in return for their acceptance of clerical rule.
b. Included state subsidies to offset costs of necessities, special payments for
the poor, and low gas prices, public education, generous state pensions,
and low health care costs for the middle class.
2. Reform of social contract
a. The interventionist-redistributive political economy was expensive and
inefficient.
b. By 2010, leading members of all four factions concluded that reforms
were necessary.
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c. Economic growth was stalling, and subsidies were costing billions.
d. In 2010, President Ahmadinejad cut the subsidies, replacing them with
monthly.
e. Plan was implemented smoothly, but ran into problems in 2012, given
soaring inflation rates.
f. Planned price increases on basic necessities were halted.
3. Privatization
a. In 2010, more than 300 state-owned enterprises were privatized.
b. Not sold to private entrepreneurs, but to banks, pension funds, endowed
foundations, and military contractors.
c. Criticism leveled at initiative for being “pseudo-privatization.”
4. International sanctions
a. Difficulties worsened in 2012 because of sanctions imposed to deter
Iranian nuclear ambitions.
b. Oil revenue cue in half.
c. Nation cut off from global money networks.
d. Consumers forced to pay more for imported goods due to loss of
currency’s value.
VIII. COMPARING CAPABILITIES AMONG NIGERIA, BRAZIL, AND IRAN
A. Physical needs
1. Use infant mortality rates to operationally define physical needs
2. General pattern is for infant mortality rates to go down as income per capita
rises
a. Brazil best record
b. Iran next best
c. Nigeria worst
B. Informed decision making
1. The record with adult literacy is similar to that of infant mortality.
2. Brazil and Iran have made relatively steady progress in increasing adult
literacy.
3. Both have succeeded in improving literacy among the poor, with Iran having a
good record of improving literacy of girls in rural areas.
4. Nigeria’s improvements have been limited.
C. Safety
1. There are very large differences in homicide rates, with Brazil having the
worst record, Nigeria in the middle, and Iran having the lowest by far.
2. The homicide data do not reveal differences in safety among regions of the
country.
3. Nor do they reveal differences in safety between supporters and outspoken
opponents of the Iranian regime.
D. Democracy
1. Economist Democracy Index for 2012 showed Brazil ranking first, with
Nigeria in the middle, and Iran a distant third.
E. With the exception of homicide, Brazil does a better job than Nigeria or Iran in
creating conditions that enhance its citizens’ capabilities.
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IX. CONCLUSION
A. Countries differ in degrees of democracy, just as they differ in degrees of
authoritarianism.
B. Authoritarian regimes do not have a clear advantage over democracies in making
decisions effectively and quickly.
C. While Brazil and Iran have both brought down infant mortality rates and
improved access to education for poor children, Brazilian citizens have more
opportunity to participate effectively in decisions that affect their lives.
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