Creating Local Democracy in Iran
State Building and the Politics of Decentralization

An innovative study of the political decentralization of Iran and the failure of elected local government to democratize the authoritarian regime.

Kian Tajbakhsh (Author)

9781009160919, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 July 2022

330 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2 cm, 0.61 kg

'The value of the book is that it is both academically analytical and also a personal account of good intentions leading to the usual destination. It gives details of local budgets and elections, followed by the author's empirical observations of the results, with revealing interviews with many senior and mid level government officials. Political scientists will find the analysis useful, while the personal insights will give those with a general interest in the interior workings of Iran a view not easily obtainable elsewhere.' Antony Wynn, Asian Affairs

Empirically rich and theoretically informed, this book is an innovative analysis of political decentralization under the Islamic Republic of Iran. Drawing upon Kian Tajbakhsh's twenty years of experience working with and researching local government in Iran, it uses original data and insights to explain how local government operates in towns and cities as a form of electoral authoritarianism. With a combination of historical, political, and financial field research, it explores the multifaceted dimensions of local power and how various ideologically opposed actors shaped local government as an integral component of authoritarian state building. Ultimately, this book demonstrates how local government serves to undermine democratization and consolidate the Islamist regime. As Iran's cities and towns grow and develop, their significance will only increase, and this study is vital to understanding their politics, administration and influence.

Preface
Overview
Part I. Launching Local Democracy: 1. Reshaping the state: political decentralization comes to Iran in the 1990s: 2. Launching municipal government, 1999-2003
Part II. Arguing for Local Democracy: 3. Reformists, local democracy and civil society: socio-political discourses
4. Efficiency in governance: technocratic discourse
5. The theocratic and Islamist discourse on the shura
Part III. Blocking Local Democracy: 6. The rocky path from elections to democracy
7. City planning and the challenges of democractic governance
8. Financing local democracy
9. Geopolitics and the limits of international municipal cooperation
10. What of the future of local democracy.

Subject Areas: Urban economics [KCU], Central government [JPQ], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]