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Iran
The Consolidation of Theocracy
By the time Khomeini issued his judicial decree, the armed opposition
had been suppressed. Although isolated acts of terrorism continued
to take place after December 1982, the political elite no longer
perceived such incidents as threatening to the regime. Both religious
and lay leaders remained generally intolerant of dissent, but
a gradual decline was noted in government abuses of civil liberties
in line with the provisions of the eight-point decree. As preoccupation
with internal security abated, the leaders began to establish
consensus on the procedures that they believed were necessary
to ensure the continuity of the new political institutions. Accordingly,
elections were held for the Assembly of Experts, which chose a
successor to Khomeini, and regulations were promulgated for the
smooth functioning of the ministerial bureaucracies. The politicians
also were determined to restore relative normalcy to society,
albeit within prescribed Islamic bounds. Thus, they permitted
the universities, which had been closed in 1980, to reopen, and
they tried to control the excesses of the hezbollahis.
The refocusing of political energies on consolidating the regime
also brought into the open the debate among members of the political
elite over government policies. Two main issues dominated this
debate: the role of the revolutionary organizations that operated
fairly autonomously of the central government; and government
intervention in the economy. The government of Prime Minister
Mir-Hosain Musavi, which was approved by the Majlis in October
1981 and won a second parliamentary mandate in October 1985, tried
to restrain the revolutionary organizations and advocated broad
regulatory economic control. The Majlis served as the principal
arena in which these issues were debated. Opposition from the
Majlis blocked some laws outright and forced the government to
accept compromises that diluted the effects of other policies.
Data as of December 1987
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