Partisanship and the Socioeconomic Structure of Iran: A Case Study of the First Era of Partisanship (1908-1925)

After the Russo-Persian Wars and Iran‘s encounter with European countries, the elites realized the inefficiency of the ruling political system. The Persian Constitutional Revolution gained victory as a result of the gradual transfer of this awareness to society, improvement of people‘s level of knowledge, and consequently, public movement against the ruling power. After the end of the first term of the Parliament, during which pre-constitutional associations were active, the Iranian parties formally started their activities in the second term. However, the traditional socioeconomic structures remained the same. Half of the Iranian population was nomadic tribes. Rural and urban populations constituted 30% and 20% of the Iranian society respectively. Iran‘s economy was an agricultural oneenjoying the characteristics of semicolonial economies, andwas controlled by companies of colonizing countries. The urban population was not in majority in Iran, the middle class was not developed, and the socioeconomic arrangements were totally based on traditional grounds of the past. In other words, the traces of modern era were hardly visible. Under the mentioned circumstances, the parties failed to continue their dynamic and effective existence in the first era of partisanship (1908-1925), since a dynamic trend required fulfillment of the needs of society and development of appropriate infrastructures. As the needs were not defined yet, and the socioeconomic arrangements had not been changed consistent with those of partisan societies, it is no wonder that parties could not survive. The present paper aims to study the socioeconomic conditions needed for the parties to survive and compare them to those of the first era of partisanship.