ABSTRACT

Iran has a peculiar political system, being a theocratic republic where a constrained electoral arena and tenacious policy debates subsist underneath the weight of tutelary religious institutions that give supreme power and authority to Shi‘a clerics. Such a political order has undergone many evolutionary changes in the 40 years since its revolutionary birth, but among its future challenges are an economy stifled by international sanctions, internal polarization, generational change, and the complexities of regional geopolitical resistance.