Political Parties Series
Mapping domestic politics — Episode: Iran
There’s nothing better than an amended quote by Rumi to describe the main reason behind this new series on political parties around the world:
Out beyond labels of conservatives and reformists there is a (research) field. I’ll meet you there
More often than not, there’s more to a country’s domestic politics than classic pre-election oversimplifications and rigid dichotomies such as reformists vs conservatives. Not only because such boundaries are usually more apparent than real, but mostly because within each group there is often such an incredible amount of variation that makes the use of such overarching labels (“reformists” and “conservatives”) shallow at best.
Episode: Iran
Ahead of Iran’s 11th parliamentary election, which will be held on February 21, 2020, here is a map of the main political groups as of early 2020. In Iran, there are more than 250 political parties registered at the Ministry of Interior, so such a map is after all a simplification of reality. Maps are by definition as such. But at least, you would hopefully appreciate this attempt of mine to challenge oversimplifications with simplifications, wouldn’t you?
In either case, I hope such a mapping exercise would at least provide a richer, although not complete, portrayal of the actual situation on the ground.
How to read it:
• circles: coalitions (dotted line); parties (full line); associations (light line)
• size and position of the circles: unfortunately random (there is no radical-moderate axis within the bigger circles, it’s impossible to make it, as it would vary according to the policy area), with the exception of “conformists” lying at the intersection of con|servatives and re|formists. In the conformists, only Motahari’s group is represented in the map for space constraints, but so many other relevant personalities could actually be labelled as “conformists”– such as Ali Larijani and Hassan Rouhani, just to name two prominent names of our time.
• personalities: those associated to that specific group. Some can be related to more than one group.
• years: year of foundation (and, if any, of its termination) of that group.
• arrows: splits from other groups.
Sources:
• Boroujerdi & Rahimkhani’s “Postrevolutionary Iran: A Political Handbook” (2018)
• Online sources (including Wikipedia 😔) to complement and double-check
• Not sure whom to credit for this brilliant “conformist” label, but I heard it first from Fereshteh Sadeghi
• Jean-Baptiste Gallopin for being a source of inspiration when in early 2019 he published a similar map about Sudan’s domestic actors.
Searchable pdf: docdro.id/xVwOsxY
