ABSTRACT
The Guard factions that competed with the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution for leadership of the early Guard have all virtually disappeared. According to systematic criteria of institutionalization, the Revolution ary Guard has successfully completed a transition from an ad hoc, disorganized patchwork of revolutionary militias to one of Iran's most powerful and durable revolutionary institutions. The Guard has resisted the professionalizing effects of its revolutionary war to a far greater degree than its counterparts resisted those effects in their revolutionary wars. Strong evidence for the ideological rather than scientific basis of Guard decisionmaking is provided by the continuing domination of the Guard by radical ideologues. A prime target of the Guard's political involvement has been President Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, whose willingess to sacrifice ideology to achieve pragmatic objectives fundamentally conflicts with the Guard's philosophy.
