An Analysis of Factors behind Centralization in Contemporary Iranian History: A Study of Constitutional Movement and Islamic Revolution

Despite the culmination of Constitutional Movement and the shift in government structure from despotic monarchy to constitutional government, as well as the efforts and endeavors of the majority of Parliament members in its early periods to play a role in political developments and their tendency toward decentralization, the role of provinces and regions in macro decision making level was gradually diminished. With the rise to the power of Pahlavi despotic regime, centralization turned to be one of the major pillars of Pahlavi government. In contemporary Iranian history, centralization and decentralization have been always associated with development and underdevelopment with short and long ups and downs. In this period, the country has experienced both getting closer to political development and getting far from it, but the relationship between centralization and political underdevelopment on one hand, and decentralization and political development on the other hand have been paid serious attention. It is clear that talking about political developments in contemporary Iranian history and studying the quality of these developments is rather difficult due to diversity of subjects and a wide spectrum of the discussable fields. Therefore, in this paper, we will try to understand the reasons for one of the major disputes in contemporary Iranian history, i.e. the highly discussed issue of centralization and decentralization, since there is no well-documented and firm study on this issue. The principal question of this paper is: What is the relationship between political development and centralization in contemporary Iranian history, and, what was the influence of Constitutional Movement and Islamic Revolution on reciprocal relationship between the two?