People's Party (Iran)

People's Party
People's Party
Leader	Asadollah Alam
Founded	16 May 1957
Dissolved	2 March 1975
Merged into	Resurgence Party
Ideology	Royalism; Liberalism
	Politics of Iran; Political parties; Elections;

People's Party (Persian: حزب مردم‎, romanized: Ḥezb-e Mardom) was a liberal^[1] political party in Pahlavi era Iran. It was one of two major parties in the apparent attempt to decree a two-party system by Mohammad Reza Shah, apparently opposition to the ruling New Iran Party and previously Party of Nationalists. The party was dissolved in 1975, in order to be merged into newly founded Resurgence Party, the only legal party in the attempted single-party system.^[2]

Leadership[]

Secretary-Generals
Name	Tenure	Ref
Asadollah Alam	1957–1960
Yahya Adl	1960–1971
	1971–1972
Yahya Adl	1972–1973
	1973–1975
	1975

Electoral history[]

Parliament
Year	Seats	+/–	Ref
1956	36 / 136(26%)	N/A	^[3]^:73
~~1960~~	25 / 200(13%)	N/A
1961	65 / 200(33%)	29	^[3]^:73
1963	16 / 200(8%)	49	^[3]^:74
1967	31 / 219(14%)	15	^[3]^:74
1971	37 / 268(14%)	6	^[3]^:74

Senate (elective seats)
Year	Seats	+/–
1960	Unknown	N/A
1963	Unknown	N/A
	4 / 30(13%)
	2 / 30(7%)	2

Reception[]

The party was often criticized for its "lethargic, belated and disorganized" election campaigns, as well as being incapable of prepararing a viable alternative to the New Iran Party's platform, thus blamed for the latter's continuing domination of the political scene.^[4]

American diplomat Andrew Killgore, described the party "made up of cliques of followers of a few competing leaders who cooperate with one another for personal and pragmatic reasons but not out of any sense of party unity", what he calls a "traditional Iranian political party".^[5]

In popular culture[]

According to Ervand Abrahamian, People's Party and New Iran Party were interchangeably called "Yes Sir, Party" (Persian: حزب بله‌قربان‎) and "Yes of Course Sir, Party" (Persian: حزب چشم‌قربان‎) by people, as members of the two parties in the National Consultative Assembly were assigned to their affiliation by Shah and with the help of SAVAK.^[6]

References[]

^ Cottam, Richard W. (1979). Nationalism in Iran: Updated Through 1978. University of Pittsburgh Pre. p. 297. ISBN 0822974207. Rumor in Tehran had it that Melliyun ("conservative") had been allotted two seats for each seat given Mardom ("liberal") , and as the returns began...
^ Chehabi, Houchang E. (1990) Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini. I.B.Tauris
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, ISBN 0-19-924958-X
^ Ramazani, Rouhollah K. (1974). "Iran's 'White Revolution': a Study in Political Development". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 5 (2): 124–139 (subscription required). doi:10.1017/S0020743800027781. JSTOR 162585.
^ Andrew I. Killgore (30 October 1972), Letter From the Embassy in Iran to the Country Director for Iran (Miklos), Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State
^ Abrahamian, Ervand. (2008) History of Modern Iran. Cambridge University Press.

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[1] Cottam, Richard W. (1979). Nationalism in Iran: Updated Through 1978. University of Pittsburgh Pre. p. 297. ISBN 0822974207. Rumor in Tehran had it that Melliyun ("conservative") had been allotted two seats for each seat given Mardom ("liberal") , and as the returns began...

[2] Chehabi, Houchang E. (1990) Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini. I.B.Tauris

[Nohlen-3] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, ISBN 0-19-924958-X

[4] Ramazani, Rouhollah K. (1974). "Iran's 'White Revolution': a Study in Political Development". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 5 (2): 124–139 (subscription required). doi:10.1017/S0020743800027781. JSTOR 162585.

[5] Andrew I. Killgore (30 October 1972), Letter From the Embassy in Iran to the Country Director for Iran (Miklos), Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State

[6] Abrahamian, Ervand. (2008) History of Modern Iran. Cambridge University Press.

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