Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2025

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Program

Middle Eastern Studies

Advisor

Ozlem Goner

Subject Categories

Economic History | Islamic World and Near East History | Political Economy | Political History | Political Theory

Keywords

Iran, Bonyads, IRGC, Subcontractor State, Velayat-e Faqih, Ayatollah Khomeini

Abstract

This thesis investigates the ideological and institutional foundations of Iran's post-revolutionary political economy, focusing on the triumvirate of clerical authority, bonyads (charitable foundations), and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Drawing on Kevan Harris’s “subcontractor state” framework, this study argues that Iran’s political economy is simultaneously a decentralized yet state-dominated system, where semi-public institutions like the bonyads and the IRGC act as key subcontractors, enabling the Islamic Republic to further economic development and circumventing Western sanctions. This analysis examines the development of Iran’s political economy from the 1979 revolution to identify the influence of left-wing Islamic ideologues like Ali Shariati and Mahmoud Taleqani, Khomeini’s Velayat-e Faqih concept, and the subsequent rise of the IRGC as a dominant economic and political clique. By examining these dynamics, this thesis challenges the rentier and praetorian state models, by offering a nuanced presentation of Iran’s distinct “qualitatively socialist” economy, where the state’s economic monopoly and economic mechanisms are motivated by political and social interests rather than for private capital accumulation. Ultimately, this study presents how Iran’s revolutionary ideals became institutionalized within a network of clerics and military intelligentsia, to make the Islamic Republic resilient to internal and external pressures.

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