The Relation between Governmental Parties and the 19th and the 20th Parliaments in the Political Structure of the Second Pahlavi

The political system of the second Pahlavi dynasty, just like any other government, possessed its own unique theoretical and ideological foundations upon which it endeavored to obtain its political legitimacy. One of the most important means of realizing such a goal was the establishment of “governmental” or “imperative” parties. However, up until the year 1956, the idea had remained a fantasy when finally in April 1957, Assadollah 'Alam received the order from the Shah to establish the “popular party”. A year later, the prime minister of the time, Manouchehr Iqbal, declared the existence of the second governmental party, called the “nationalists (Melliyoun)”. As a consequent, the institutional function of the elections and the parliament changed in favor of maintaining the autocratic government of the Shah. The acme of political activities of the popular parties and the nationalists emerged in 1960, concurrent with the election for the twentieth parliament of the National Assembly. Despite the Shah’s promise about a free election, the majority party, which held control of the executive institutes, cheated in the election. The Shah was forced to declare the election invalid due to harsh complaints about the electoral fraud.The main question of the present study is: What position and function did the 1950s’ governmental parties hold in the political government of the second Pahlavi era? And at a lower level, how were their relations with the nineteenth and the twentieth legislative assemblies? Accordingly, the aim of the research is to provide answers to the above-stated questions based on Huntington’s theory about the top-down political institutionalization in resolving the crisis of political participation and legitimation in the developing countries. The research follows a qualitative method for causal explanation to provide a descriptive-analytical account based on library and internet resources.