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In 1962, Leonard Binder, a keen observer of Middle Eastern politics, noted that “nepotism is a strict family obligation in Iran.” More recently, Assef Ashraf described the Qajar state as a “familial state.” During the Pahlavi dynasty, the dominant influence of the “thousand families” in Iranian affairs was evident. Even the massive social revolution of 1979 did not alter Binder’s astute observation about nepotism, which persisted in the Islamic theocracy that followed. Post-revolutionary Iran’s political landscape remains significantly influenced by informal institutions and kinship ties. This talk will focus on one such primordial network: family ties. Drawing on a longitudinal study of over 2,740 members of the political elite in the Islamic Republic, the speaker has compiled the most extensive list of familial connections. He argues that understanding the dynamics of post-revolutionary politics in Iran requires recognizing (a) the significant role of informal politics and (b) the kinship and marital ties of officeholders, beyond a simple focus on embedded formal institutions and political structures.
About the Speakers
Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi is Vice Provost and Dean of College of Arts, Sciences, and Education at Missouri University of Science and Technology.Previously, he was a Professor of Government and International Affairs and Director of the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech (2019-2022) and Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University (1992-2019). He is the author of Tarashidam, Parastidam, Shikastam: Guftarhay-i dar Siyasat va Huvyiyat-i Irani (Tehran, 2010) and Iranian Intellectuals and the West: Tormented Triumph of Nativism (Syracuse University Press, 1996); co-author of Post-revolutionary Iran: A Political Handbook (Syracuse University Press, 2018); and editor of Mirror for the Muslim Prince: Islam and Theory of Statecraft (Syracuse University Press, 2013). His articles have appeared in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Critique: Journal for Critical Studies of the Middle East, International Third World Studies Journal and Review, Iranian Journal of International Affairs, Iranian Studies, Foreign Service Journal, Journal of Peace Research, Middle East Economic Survey, and Syracuse Law Review. Dr. Boroujerdi has been President of the Association for Iranian Studies, a fellow of the American Council on Education, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, a visiting scholar at UCLA, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute (Washington, D.C.), and a Co-PI of Iran Data Portal.
Dr. Ali Akbar Mahdi will serve as a discussant following the lecture. He is emeritus professor of Ohio Wesleyan University and currently teaches sociology at California State University, Northridge.
Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, Iranian Studies