Comments on: Press Coverage of the Iranian Election

By: Steven Taylor

Steven Taylor — Sun, 26 Jun 2005 13:30:59 +0000

Oh, I am dubious of the results. I have decided. however, that this process, while hardly a fully democratic one by any stretch, shouldn't be dismissed in the way we all rightly dismissed the election in Iraq under Saddam or various "elections" in the Soviet bloc.

There are a variety of interesting things going on here, it seems to me (from the perspective of having studied both elections and regime breakdowns) and therefore have decided that looking at these election and seeing only the sham elements may lead us as analysts (and the US government in terms of making policy) astray.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 16:11:11 +0000

A possibility. I'm a little dubious when a candidate who gets into the runoff by questionable means wins the runoff.

By: Steven Taylor

Steven Taylor — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 15:42:16 +0000

While no fan of Iran's regime am I, it is my understanding that the actual electoral process itself is basically clean (although the first round situation this time raises questions). Of course, evaluating a specific process and the regime as a whole are two different things that needed be conflated. The serious qualifiers vis-a-vis the regime itself are twofold, and both are serious. 1) The presidency has little real power and 2) the Guardian Council has veto power over candidates.

I do think that the likelihood is that the actual contest in Round Two was legit, but that clearly the overall non-democratic nature of the regime has to b considered in evaluating the significance of the outcome.

I will say that simply dismissing the whole process is probably not the correct way to go. The outcome and the process do matter, the question remains as to exactly how much.