Analyzing the Constitutional Movement in the Framework of Theories of Transition to Democracy: The Compromising Elite

The constitutional movement paved the way for Iran to enter into new political relations in a new era, which could lead to the formation of a democratic government; but from the very beginning, this movement faced major problems and obstacles in achieving democracy. Accordingly, the study seeks to answer the question, "In the context of theories of transition to democracy, how did the lack of compromising elites during the constitutional movement lead to the re-establishment of tyranny and the non-institutionalization of political development? To answer this fundamental question, it was hypothesized that "the lack of compromising elites in resolving political disputes during the constitutional movement, paved the way for the elimination and exclusion approaches in elite political culture, thus reproducing tyranny and hindering the institutionalization of political development. The present study has described and analyzed the political and social developments of the constitutional period, using theories of transition to democracy, especially the third generation of these theories, the theory of the conciliatory elites of Schmidter and O'Donnell. This theory gives the main role to the political elites in the process of achieving political development and considers the most important tactic to be the expansion of compromise between all the ruling political elites and the opposition. From this study, it is concluded that, due to the lack of a conciliatory approach between the ruling political elites and the opposition, the constitutional movement has not led to the establishment and consolidation of the desired political order.