People's Party (Iran)

People's Party
Leader Asadollah Alam
Founded 16 May 1957 (1957-05-16)
Dissolved 2 March 1975 (1975-03-02)
Merged into Resurgence Party
Ideology Royalism
Liberalism

People's Party (Persian: حزب مردم‎, translit. Ḥezb-e Mardom) was a liberal[1] political party in Pahlavi era Iran. It was one of two major parties in the apparent attempt to decree a two-party system by Mohammad Reza Shah, apparently opposition to the ruling New Iran Party and previously Party of Nationalists.

The party was often criticized for its "lethargic, belated and disorganized" election campaigns, as well as being incapable of prepararing a viable alternative to the New Iran Party's platform, thus blamed for the latter's continuing domination of the political scene.[2]

American diplomat Andrew Killgore, described the party "made up of cliques of followers of a few competing leaders who cooperate with one another for personal and pragmatic reasons but not out of any sense of party unity", what he calls a "traditional Iranian political party".[3]

The party was dissolved in 1975, in order to be merged into newly founded Resurgence Party, the only legal party in the attempted single-party system.[4]

Electoral history

According to Ervand Abrahamian, People's Party and New Iran Party were interchangeably called "Yes Sir, Party" (Persian: حزب بله‌قربان‎) and "Yes of Course Sir, Party" (Persian: حزب چشم‌قربان‎) by people, as members of the two parties in the National Consultative Assembly were assigned to their affiliation by Shah and with the help of SAVAK.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Cottam, Richard W. (1979). Nationalism in Iran: Updated Through 1978. University of Pittsburgh Pre. p. 297. ISBN 0822974207. Rumor in Tehran had it that Melliyun ("conservative") had been allotted two seats for each seat given Mardom ("liberal") , and as the returns began...
  2. ↑ Ramazani, Rouhollah K. (1974). "Iran's 'White Revolution': a Study in Political Development". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 5 (2): 124–139 (subscription required). JSTOR 162585.
  3. ↑ Andrew I. Killgore (30 October 1972), Letter From the Embassy in Iran to the Country Director for Iran (Miklos), Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State
  4. ↑ Chehabi, Houchang E. (1990) Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini. I.B.Tauris
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, ISBN 0-19-924958-X
  6. ↑ Abrahamian, Ervand. (2008) History of Modern Iran. Cambridge University Press.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.