Distribution of Power and Structure of Local Government in the Iranian Constitutional System

 In many pluralistic societies such as Iran, the issue of distribution of power and local governance as one of the important indicators of political development and good governance is of great importance. Historical experience shows us that inaccuracies in the proper distribution of power can be a good platform for centrifugal movements or authoritarian centralism. Since the beginning of the constitutional movement in Iran, the issue of power distribution and local governance has been considered by constitutionalists and later Republicans. Given the importance of this issue, the present article seeks to find out how the mechanism of power distribution is regulated and realized by paying attention to local governance in the constitution and subsequent ordinary laws as well as in practice. Our hypothesis in this article, which is confirmed by the following evidence, is that the crisis in the Qajar patrimonialistic system paves the way for the move towards decentralization, but the international and national situation increased the need of the monopoly control of power sources by the centralized Pahlavi government, and the issue of local governance and distribution of power wasn’t considered in practice. This article shows that the fluctuation between the concentration and distribution of power in the period under review indicates a duality of attitude towards political development among Iran's political elites; Development means the expansion of competition and political participation of social forces or development means increasing the power, potentiality and efficiency of government.