Religious Democracy: the Soft Power of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Due to the circumstances of new international system and changes in the tools of power, countries have proceeded to new tools of power for securing their national security and interests and also for confirmation of their legitimacy and their performances which are not hardware but they are known as the software. In this context, one of the sources is the political system of a country that can be an important source of soft power of a country. In this context, the system of religious democracy in Iran is the key source of soft power. This source which has long been proposed as an alternative to the Western liberal democracy in the world can be a model for Muslim nations at this present circumstances that the region is in transition to democracy, on the other hand, it can neutralize the view of Westernist and the West's accusation to the Islamic Republic of Iran. This article provides a political-cultural model of religious democracy and studies the components of religious democracy as the soft power. In this article we review the components of religious democracy using a descriptive and librarian method and respond the question of what is the efficiency of religious democracy as a key component of soft power in the Islamic Republic of Iran.