Critical View from Inside to Reformism in the Islamic Republic of Iran: lessons for compromise

Almost two decades after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, a group of elites who adopted a democratic orientation towards the ruling political system, started their theoretical and practical attempts. These elites known as reformists and their thought known as reformism caused an important development in the sociopolitical history of the Islamic Republic but the realization of their goals was challenged. Frustration in reforms and transition to democracy marginalized these elites who had gained political power in a tremendous way. The main aim of this article is to criticize and examine from inside the performance of reformist current in the structure of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In this direction, the authors have used the method of interview with some reformist statesmen and thinkers. On this basis, given the nature of the subject, the author has used the theories of transition to democracy within the elitist theories of ODonnell and Schmitter for analyzing and explaining the case and the strategy of interaction and compromise. The findings show that the reformists could not maintain the realistic and moderate path and could not establish a suitable interaction with the opponents and social body, therefore after frustration in consensus and compromise gradually lost the social trust and faced social decline. these events culminated in violence and sociopolitical instability, widespread outgoing of reformists from power circle and the closure of social and political sphere, at least until 2013, which was against the reformist goals.