scientific journal Political Sociology of the Islamic Revolution

An Institutional Analysis of Political Underdevelopment in the Early Years Following the Islamic Revolution of Iran Using Douglass North’s Approach

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Rouzbeh Parhamnia 1
Iraj Ranjbar 2
Seyed Mostafa Abtahi 3
Ali Morshedizad 4

1 .

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Kermanshah Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran

3 Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

4 Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Islamic Revolution Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
The Islamic Revolution of Iran (1979) represents a significant institutional rupture in Iran’s development trajectory, characterized not by a transition to an open access order but by the reinforcement of a limited access order within the framework of traditional-religious structures. This study employs Douglass North’s institutional framework to analyze the role of four key actors post-revolution—clergy and revolutionary institutions, the National Front and Freedom Movement, leftist factions, and technocrats from the Pahlavi regime—in perpetuating Iran’s underdevelopment. The findings indicate that the clergy, leveraging extensive social capital and robust informal institutional networks, successfully established new formal institutions and monopolized power resources within a limited access order. Conversely, other actors were marginalized due to their lack of entrenched institutional networks, limited social legitimacy, and inability to create or strengthen effective formal and informal institutions. The persistence of reliance on traditional-religious institutions, high transaction costs, and constraints on institutional competition have been major obstacles to the emergence of an open access order and sustainable development in Iran.

Keywords

Underdevelopment
Post-Revolutionary Political Order
Clergy and Revolutionary Institutions
Douglass North
scientific journal Political Sociology of the Islamic Revolution
Volume 6, Issue 1 - Serial Number 21
Spring 2025
Pages 145-173

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