Politics of Reformism and the Quality of Democratic Representation in Iran: A Study in Critical Political Economy

Reformist Politics in Iran identifies itself with an essential avoidance of any sort of populism, claiming the capacity to represent the public demands of civil society. By the use of a retroductive approach, this article analyzes the configuration of Iranian reformist politics to provide an assessment of how reformism could be formulated in terms of either radicalizing the ideal of democracy following "Left Populism" or taking on policies and practices that keep the society exposed to a looming rise of "Right Populism". In recent decades, the Iranian Political Economy has witnessed a wide variety of demands hardly recognized and found entitled to go beyond expressing mere discontent with the status quo, resulting in a comprehensive political alienation. Additionally, the particular qualities of the ruling order have been of effect in keeping reformist politics in a defensive position. According to the results, the undeniable presence of left-wing reformism has not been enough to change the fact that reformist politics in Iran is still a combination of two axiomatically inconsistent approaches of which one is fundamentally devoted to the agenda of marketizing all spheres of social and political life, while the other fails to translate its theoretical differences into practical social policies.