Contrary to prevailing narratives, reformism was a by-product of the development of capitalism in the late 19th century in Iran, and such conflicts are rather rooted in historical conditions of production. The diminishing power of feudalism and the expansion of the capitalist mode of production brought about the advent of different social strata within the fledgling Iranian civil society, one of which was reformism. Ever since they have been unable to dominate the state, despite their attempts to reform the political structure. This chapter focuses on the Iranian reformist movements in the past century. It analyses four main historical eras including constitutional reformism to the coup (1905–1921), suffocation to resurgence (1925–1953), coup to revolution (1953–1979), and revolution to revolutionary reformism (1979–1997). It concludes that the failure of reformism in Iran is almost unavoidable, and its lifespan is often short. The country is incapable of responding to the expectations of different factions. Therefore, should the state give up suppression or put pressure on the masses, such expectations might take the form of a riot. For this reason, only in certain periods is reformism given the chance to reemerge in the political scene. Otherwise, since the weapon of the reformists against the masses’ rising demands is fairly ineffective and slow, they have no way but to give power to the upper faction capable of putting such requests off the agenda.