The Political Economy of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and its Aftermath (1979-2014)

This thesis aims to assess the political economy of Iran, specifically that of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and its aftermath. The new regime had come to power with promises of equality and reducing the gap between the poor and the rich. Four decades have passed after the Islamic Revolution, during which different governments tried to achieve these goals by using different economic policies. This thesis will analyze whether they have been successful in achieving these goals. The most influential analysis of the state in Iran is the rentier state analysis. Rentier state is a state that can be independent from the collection of taxes as it depends on the revenues from the rent of natural resources. It is argued that since the early 20th century, petroleum and its revenues marked Iranian political economy and it gradually transformed it into a rentier system. The problem with the rentier state approach is that it separates Iran from the typical class-relations of capitalism and the tendencies of accumulation. Therefore, as an alternative to the rentier state analysis, a class-based analysis of the Islamic Revolution will be provided in this thesis to assess the classes that supported the Islamic Revolution and the classes that benefited and lost in the aftermath. The thesis divides the post revolution governments of Iran in two eras: first the era of idealistic policies and isolation and war with Iraq (1979-1989) and second the era of liberalization and structural adjustment programs (1989-2013). Using different sources and the data from the World Bank and Iran’s Central Bank, the thesis’ findings indicate that during the first era the proletariat and the petite bourgeoisie were the winners and during the second era it was the bourgeoisie that won.