People's Party
LeaderAsadollah Alam
Founded16 May 1957 (1957-05-16)
Dissolved2 March 1975 (1975-03-02)
Merged intoRastakhiz Party
IdeologyRoyalism
Liberalism
Political positionCentre-right

People's Party (Persian: حزب مردم, romanized: Ḥezb-e Mardom) was a liberal[1] political party in Pahlavi era Iran. It was one of two major parties in the apparent attempt to decree a two-party system by Mohammad Reza Shah, apparently opposition to the ruling New Iran Party and previously Nationalists' Party. The party was dissolved in 1975, in order to be merged into the newly founded Rastakhiz Party, the only legal party in the Shah's attempted single-party system.[2]

Leadership

Electoral history

Reception

The party was often criticized for its "lethargic, belated and disorganized" election campaigns, as well as being incapable of preparing a viable alternative to the New Iran Party's platform, thus blamed for the latter's continuing domination of the political scene.[4]

American diplomat Andrew Killgore, described the party "made up of cliques of followers of a few competing leaders who cooperate with one another for personal and pragmatic reasons but not out of any sense of party unity", what he calls a "traditional Iranian political party".[5]

According to Ervand Abrahamian, People's Party and New Iran Party were interchangeably called "Yes Sir, Party" (Persian: حزب بله‌قربان) and "Yes of Course Sir, Party" (Persian: حزب چشم‌قربان) by people, as members of the two parties in the National Consultative Assembly were assigned to their affiliation by Shah and with the help of SAVAK.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Cottam, Richard W. (1979). Nationalism in Iran: Updated Through 1978. University of Pittsburgh Pre. p. 297. ISBN 0822974207. Rumor in Tehran had it that Melliyun ("conservative") had been allotted two seats for each seat given Mardom ("liberal"), and as the returns began...
  2. ↑ Chehabi, Houchang E. (1990) Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini. I.B.Tauris
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, ISBN 0-19-924958-X
  4. ↑ Ramazani, Rouhollah K. (1974). "Iran's 'White Revolution': a Study in Political Development". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 5 (2): 124–139 (subscription required). doi:10.1017/S0020743800027781. JSTOR 162585. S2CID 154527381.
  5. ↑ Andrew I. Killgore (30 October 1972), Letter From the Embassy in Iran to the Country Director for Iran (Miklos), Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State
  6. ↑ Abrahamian, Ervand. (2008) History of Modern Iran. Cambridge University Press.


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