Atlas / Organisations / Khomeinism
Khomeinism
Velayat-e faqih · 1979– · Iran · Islamist · Held state power · coding confidence high
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
Guardianship of the jurist: sovereignty belongs to God and is exercised by a supreme clerical authority over an elected government.
Economic model
Large nationalised sector, religious foundations controlling major assets, subsidies, sanctions-distorted markets.
Organisation of powers
Elected president and parliament under an unelected supreme leader, guardian council vetting of candidates, revolutionary guard.
Reading note
A genuinely hybrid regime: real elections inside a hard theocratic ceiling. Coding it as simply 'a dictatorship' or simply 'a democracy' both lose information.
Check a claim about Khomeinism. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe evidence for every score
All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.
EC · Economic organisation · scored −03
Coded −3: very large state and foundation ownership alongside a private bazaar economy.
- Documented act or statuteThe bonyad religious foundations control a substantial share of non-oil GDP and report to the supreme leader.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored +10
At the ceiling: compulsory dress, gender segregation and clerical authority over personal law.
- Documented act or statuteThe 2022–23 protests followed a death in morality police custody and were met with mass arrests and executions.
AU · Organisation of power · scored +09
A genuine hybrid: real contested elections inside a hard unelected ceiling. Coded 9 rather than 10 for that reason.
- Documented act or statuteThe Guardian Council vets all candidates and disqualified the majority of applicants in recent parliamentary cycles.
- Documented act or statuteThe Supreme Leader is selected by an Assembly of Experts whose own candidates are vetted by the Guardian Council he appoints.
- Documented act or statutePresidential elections have produced genuine changes of governing faction, most recently in 2024.
SC · Scale of decision · scored +08
Coded +8: unitary clerical authority with appointed provincial representatives above elected councils.
- Documented act or statuteThe supreme leader appoints representatives in every province and in the armed forces.
ID · Rule of membership · scored +09
Coded +9: full membership requires adherence to the official confession.
- Documented act or statuteNon-recognised religious minorities, notably Bahá'ís, are excluded from higher education and public employment.
CH · Method and tempo · scored +07
Coded +7: founded in revolution and sustained by an armed body outside the ordinary state.
- Documented act or statuteThe Revolutionary Guard was created in 1979 as a parallel force answerable to the supreme leader.
Where it came from, and what came after
- gave doctrine toHezbollah
Founded in 1982 with Revolutionary Guard assistance and allegiance to the supreme leader.
- destroyedTudeh Party
The party backed the revolution and was destroyed by it in 1983.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
Countries
Cite this page
Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.
Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.