Postrevolutionary Iran: A Political Handbook. By Mehrzad Boroujerdi and Kourosh Rahimkhani. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2018. Pp. 853 with index. $69.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 9780815635741 (hardcover); 9780815654322 (Ebook).
Mehrzad Boroujerdi and Kourosh Rahimkhani’s Postrevolutionary Iran: A Political Handbook is an immense and unprecedented undertaking to describe political institutions and the political elite in Iran. This work, unlike any other, will likely be considered an indispensable source for those studying Iranian politics since the Islamic Revolution. This work is a comprehensive collection of data on the political life of Iran since 1979. Much of the data compiled in this book can also be found on Mehrzad Boroujerdi’s website Iran Data Portal (http://irandataportal.syr.edu/).
The book is comprised of two large sections. The first section of the book focuses on political institutions in Iran. The second section of the book focuses on the political elite within Iran. The work aims to address questions around elite studies, electoral behavior, gender and politics, party politics, and institutional design, and compares the pre- and post-revolutionary elite in Iran. Boroujerdi and Rahimkhani believe nuance and capturing the full scope of Iranian politics has been missing from postrevolutionary analysis. They do not aim to study the impact of the political elites but rather to gather data illuminating who the political elite are.
Using data from archives, yearbooks, books, obituary notices, newspapers, and online sources, Boroujerdi and Rahimkhani created a database of over 2,300 political personalities in Iran. In addition to collecting data on Iranian political players, the authors also collected data on “36 elections, 166 outlawed political organizations, 248 legal political parties, various ministerial impeachments, and women’s political participation” (p. xx). The authors acknowledge that it is problematic to depend solely on Iranian government information that could be lacking in accuracy and objectivity, but they often had no other choice for data sources. The authors used various means to interview subjects listed in the book. Some interviews were conducted with interlocutors, some were performed via Skype, some answers were received via email. The authors acknowledge that much of the data in this book is subject to change as more than half of their list of the political elite are living members of Iranian society.
The first section of the book is broken up into fourteen chapters relating to Iranian political institutions. The authors give a detailed chronicle of the major events in Iran from 1978 to 2017. They provide a yearly breakdown of political institutions formed. Almost every chapter has a short introduction describing the political institution before going into the detailed charts and graphs. This section ends with a lengthy description of political parties in Iran. Each party is described by using its name, date, and place of formation. They also list the party founding members, the party’s political leaning, and a brief description of the organization.
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This work is notable not only for its scope but also because the authors have made much of the data available to scholars through their website. This book is one of a kind and will be invaluable to those who study Iranian history and politics.
I recommend this book for libraries with Iranian studies scholars or for those who have scholars who study comparative political science. The book contains an amazing amount of charts, graphs, and illustrations that would be very useful for future research in this area. The book is well made and a hefty tome at almost 900 pages. The references will be useful to many but I believe their listing of all the websites they utilized will also be very informative to scholars. The index is very thorough.
I think this work will be instrumental to those who study Iranian history and politics. This immense undertaking is to be applauded for its depth and breadth. The companion website (http://irandataportal.syr.edu/) will also be of great use to many in the field. I recommend this book for all research institutions with Iranian studies scholars.
Jaleh Fazelian
John Carroll University