Un-globalised Politics: The Primacy of Domestic Factors in the Downfall of Iran's ‘Theocratic Left’ During Ahmadinejad's Second Term

Abstract

For a country so important to international affairs, Iran's politics are strikingly misunderstood. In the face of the inadequacy of explanations for the downfall of Iran's former President Ahmadinejad and other members of Iran's ‘Theocratic Left,’ this paper seeks to provide an explanation for this phenomenon that is both coherent and consistent with primary evidence. Global media, especially, has excessively emphasised global and international factors when looking at Ahmadinejad's second term, unable to notice Khamenei's need to compromise at home despite his seemingly total control of Iran's foreign policy and convinced that international sanctions caused Ahmadinejad's downfall. This paper instead places the focus on domestic political factional dynamics that emerged after the 2009 ‘Green Movement’ protests, emphasising how crucial factions and forces in Iran's domestic political landscape came together to check the power of the seemingly ascendant ‘Theocratic Left,’ thereby creating conditions that would eventually favour the victory of Hassan Rouhani in the 2013 election.