Political Underdevelopment from Perspective of Elites Political Culture in Iran (1989-2005)

Focusing on elites’ political culture is very significant for understanding and analyzing the nature of political development، particularly in the comparative approach to political systems. In other words، political development and underdevelopment has a close relationship with political elites’ ideology and attitude in a way that their change may affect the trend of political development. Although the ability of political system for realizing the components of political development is also related to popular political culture but elites’ attitudes، passions and recognition have more effective roles in weakening or reinforcement of political development elements. In this article، after explaining the theoretical bases of relationship between elites’ political culture and underdevelopment، its position is examined in the administrations of Hashemi Rafsanjani، Khatami and Ahmadinejad. Thus the main aim of this research is to identify the relationship between elites’ political culture in these three periods and political underdevelopment based on a theoretical pattern. This aim requires that this hypothesis be tested: One of main serious factors of political underdevelopment is that political elites are not inclined towards broadening participation and competition in politics، and there are the gaps and disagreements among elites in Hashemi، Khatami and Ahmadinejad administrations that indicate a kind of subject and conflictual political culture instead of participatory and consensual one.