An Analysis of Social Status of Political Elites: A Case Study of Seventh to Tenth Cabinet Members

The aim of this study is to analyze the social status of Iranian political elites of the seventh to the tenth cabinets. The theoretical apparatus stands on Marx's theory and Weber's approach of social status. The research method is the comparative-descriptive analysis, using archival data.The unites of analysis are the members of the seventh to the tenth cabinets. Based on the empirical findings, 95.8% of the cabinet members were male, with a mean age of 48 years. Furthermore, 86.2% of the members were city-dwellers. So far as the provincial distribution is concerned, the members were mostly from Tehran (20.2%), Isfahan (13.1%), and Yazd (11%). Concerning their acquired social status, 49.7% of the cabinet members had Ph.D. degrees, and 29.9% held master degrees. Moreover, the findings show that the members had high managerial positions of the country in their resume. Finally, the data indicates that the cabinet members were 29.8% from the university affiliated members, 25% from the military staff, and 18.5% from the clergymen.