Do current events in Iran make you want to get a grip on the country’s politics? Foreign Affairs has a useful guide to essential reading, including Akbar Ganji’s “The Struggle Against Sultanism” in The Journal of Democracy.
But it is precisely because the Islamic Republic is not a Sultanist regime that it needs the popular legitimacy that elections – however flawed – provide, the Washington Institute’s Mehdi Khalaji told a meeting yesterday. While a Sultanist regime can massacre its people with impunity, the leaders of the Islamic Republic need an element of populism to maintain their rule.
Mr. Khalaji has a strong point. Those inspired Iranians taking to the streets have laid it out plain and simple with the question, “Where’s my vote?”. While their voiced discontent is in favor of Moussavi, I would hazard that the real driver is the government’s most blatant manipulation of the electoral process to date. Here’s where the regime crossed the line, ignoring or forgetting that even they require a certain degree of democratic legitimacy. Too many Iranians are clearly unwilling to give up that level of say they as individuals have in their governance – their right to vote.