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The London School of Economics and Political Science the RISE and FALL of the HYBRID REGIME: GUARDIANSHIP and DEMOCRACY in IRAN

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The London School of Economics and Political Science the RISE and FALL of the HYBRID REGIME: GUARDIANSHIP and DEMOCRACY in IRAN View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by LSE Theses Online The London School of Economics and Political Science THE RISE AND FALL OF THE HYBRID REGIME: GUARDIANSHIP AND DEMOCRACY IN IRAN AND TURKEY Feyzi Karabekir Akkoyunlu A thesis submitted to the Department of Government of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, February 2014. 2 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 99,690 words. 28 February 2014 Feyzi Karabekir Akkoyunlu 3 ABSTRACT This research project has two interconnected goals. First, it attempts to unpack and redefine ‘hybrid regimes’ – a concept that has emerged from the ‘third wave’ democratisation literature in the late 1990s and shares with this literature its underlying cultural, ideological and teleological assumptions. I start with a critique of these dominant assumptions and point to the need to rethink hybrid regimes outside of these parameters. I then propose a more limited and lucid definition for hybrid regimes as political systems built on two contesting sources of legitimacy – elitist and popular – and corresponding institutions of guardianship and democracy. Hybrid regimes, in other words, are not ‘diminished democracies’ or ‘competitive autocracies’, but an altogether separate regime type that feature clearly defined tutelary and electoral institutions. Based on this redefinition, I present five hypotheses regarding the dynamics of change in hybrid regimes, which are subsequently applied to the two case studies: the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Turkey. The second goal of the thesis is to present a new comparative framework to analyse the post-Cold War dynamics of change in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Turkey, two countries with political systems that scholars have found difficult to categorise and observers often treated as polar opposites due to their seemingly inimical official ideologies, Khomeinism and Kemalism. Through studying their hybrid institutional characteristics and the role of structural factors and human agency at the critical political junctures that the two countries experienced in the late 1990s and the 2000s, I endeavour to contribute to the scholarly discussion on the dynamics of interaction and legitimation between popular and elite rule. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP .............................................................................................. 2 ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................................... 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF ACRONYMS ........................................................................................................................ 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................. 10 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 11 Research goals ......................................................................................................................... 11 Methodological framework and challenges ............................................................. 12 Case studies ............................................................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER 1. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: DEMOCRATISATION, GUARDIANSHIP AND THE HYBRID REGIME ........................................................................................................ 19 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 19 The long shadow of the ‘third wave’: Democratisation and the transition literature ..................................................................................................................................... 20 Two major debates ............................................................................................................... 20 Dominant assumptions and practical implications ................................................... 22 Unpacking and rethinking hybrid regimes .............................................................. 27 Steering clear of the ‘terminological Babel’ ................................................................. 27 Neither authoritarian nor democratic: Hybrid Regime redefined ....................... 33 Guardianship and the hybrid regime .......................................................................... 37 Who are the guardians and what do they guard?...................................................... 37 Guardianship and democracy in hybrid regimes ........................................................ 39 Political change in hybrid regimes: Five hypotheses .......................................... 44 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 48 5 CHAPTER 2. OF POWER AND RESISTANCE: STRUCTURAL ROOTS OF AUTHORITY AND LEGITIMACY IN IRAN AND TURKEY ................................................. 50 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 50 On ‘Iran’ and ‘Turkey’: What is in a name? ............................................................... 51 From Farr to Shi’ism: Divine sanction in Iran ......................................................... 56 From beylik to empire: The Ottoman idea of statehood .................................... 61 State vs. Clergy: Institutionalisation of religious orthodoxy in Iran and Turkey .......................................................................................................................................... 65 Change and continuity in the age of reform and revolution ............................ 70 The Ottoman case .................................................................................................................. 71 The Iranian case .................................................................................................................... 75 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 80 CHAPTER 3. ATATÜRK AND KHOMEINI: CHARISMATIC, POLITICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL ROOTS OF THE HYBRID REGIMES ............................................................ 81 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 81 Charismatic leaders of popular movements ............................................................ 83 Coalition building and power consolidation ........................................................... 85 Pragmatic coalition building ............................................................................................ 86 Consolidation of power ........................................................................................................ 92 Kemalism and Khomeinism: Ideological foundations of the hybrid regimes ........................................................................................................................................ 99 Sovereignty ........................................................................................................................... 100 Dualist worldview and paternalism ............................................................................. 102 State and religion ............................................................................................................... 108 Mission, scope and view of the global order .............................................................. 110 Immortal leader: Succession and institutionalisation of charisma .......... 114 CHAPTER 4. INSTITUTIONS OF THE HYBRID REGIME ............................................... 118 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 118 Institutional duality in the Islamic Republic of Iran ......................................... 119 Institutions of guardianship in the IRI ..................................................................... 121 The Office of the Supreme Leader ................................................................................. 121 The Guardian Council and the Expediency Council ................................................ 125 The Security Sector: The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Basij 127 Republican institutions of the
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