Democrat Party of Iran

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For the party active during the 1910s, see Democrat Party (Persia).
Democrat Party of Iran
LeaderAhmad Qavam
General SecretaryAhmad Aramesh[1]
Youth wing chairmanHassan Arsanjani
FoundedJune 29, 1946 (1946-06-29)[2]
Dissolved1948
Workers wingCentral Syndicate of Iranian Craftsmen, Farmers, and Workers[3]
IdeologyNationalism
Reformism
Political positionThird Position[4]

Iranian Democrat Party or Democrat Party of Iran (DPI; Persian: حزب دموکرات ایران, romanized: Ḥezb-e Demowkrāt-e Irān) was a short-lived political party in Iran, founded in 1946 and led by Ahmad Qavam. It was the most important party formed by the old Qajar nobility,[5] and an association of aristocrats and anti-British radical intellectuals.[6] With the fall of Qavam, it disintegrated in 1948.[7]

The organization tried to give itself the appearance of being the heir of the old Democrat party[8] and was ironically named "Democrat Party of Iran" in contrast to the communist "Democrat Party of Azerbaijan".[9]

The party's ideology was to be nationalist and reformist,[2] but it was organizationally fragile as it was ideologically amorphous.[10] It called for extensive economic, social, and administrative reforms while advocating a revision of the Iranian Armed Forces.[8] It developed an authoritarianist structure[11] and some suspect it planned to create one-party state.[8]

According to Ervand Abrahamian, Qavam had two paradoxical reasons to establish the party, a "double-edged sword directed at the left as well as the right". He intended to defeat royalist and pro-British candidates in the 1947 Iranian legislative election and to use it to "mobilize non-communist reformers, steal the thunder from the left, and hence build a counterbalance to the Tudeh Party".[8]

References[]

  1. ^ Leonard Binder (1964), Iran, University of California Press, p. 206
  2. ^ a b Ladjevardi, Habib (1985). Labor unions and autocracy in Iran. Syracuse University Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-8156-2343-4.
  3. ^ Abrahamian, Ervand (1982). Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton University Press. pp. 238. ISBN 0-691-10134-5.
  4. ^ Abrahamian, Ervand (1982). Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10134-5. Having formed the Democrat party, Qavam continued to move to the left. (p. 233); The swing to the left reached its furthest point in September when Qavam, speaking to an enthusiastic audience in the Tudeh headquarters, announced that the Democrats would form an electoral alliance for the forthcoming parliament not only with the Tudeh and Iran parties, but also with the Azerbaijan and Kurdish Democratic parties". (p. 235); Qavam also moved the Democrat party to the right. (p. 238)
  5. ^ Bashiriyeh, Hossein. The State and Revolution in Iran (RLE Iran D). Taylor & Francis. p. 12. ISBN 9781136820892.
  6. ^ Gheissari, Ali (2010). Iranian Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century. University of Texas Press. p. 64. ISBN 0292778910.
  7. ^ Gheissari, Ali (2010). Iranian Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century. University of Texas Press. p. 237. ISBN 0292778910.
  8. ^ a b c d Abrahamian, Ervand (1982). Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton University Press. pp. 231. ISBN 0-691-10134-5.
  9. ^ Hasanli, Jamil (2013). At the Dawn of the Cold War: The Soviet-American Crisis over Iranian Azerbaijan, 1941-1946. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 327. ISBN 9780742570900.
  10. ^ Azimi, Fakhreddin (1989). Iran: The Crisis of Democracy. St. Martin's Press. pp. 160, 167. ISBN 9781850430933.
  11. ^ Ansari, Ali (2014). Modern Iran. Routledge. p. 112. ISBN 9781317864981.


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