The reform period in Iran: A study on the reasons of electoral failures

---

Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2013

Öğrenci: KÜBRA OĞUZ

Danışman: MELİHA ALTUNIŞIK

Özet:

This thesis analyzes the period under the first reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, in the Islamic Republic of Iran between 1997-2005. In the last two years of his presidency, the reformist faction began to lose in the local, parliamentary and the presidential elections. This thesis aims at finding the reasons behind this electoral failure by looking at the domestic and international developments took place in that period. Besides, the thesis provides a political history of the post-revolutionary Iran with a special focus on factional politics in terms of its influences on the course of reformist politics. It is concluded that the hierarchical state structure of Iran creates a power hierarchy between factions which resulted in the inability of the reformist faction in delivering its promises during the presidency of Khatami. Besides, the lack of a common strategy and organizational discipline, and the unsteady relationship between the reformist faction and its constituents contributed to the electoral failures of the reformists. Additionally, a short discussion on the prospects of reform in Iran based on the inferences from the Reform Period is presented in the thesis. It is pointed out that only if the core state elite would accept a power share with the reformist elite, the reformist faction can have an effective place in the state structure.