The structure of the rentier government in Iran and the collapse of the Pahlavi government

Subject Areas : Political philosophy of the Islamic Revolution

Mehdi Majd ¹ , Alireza Soltani ²

1 - PhD student in Political Science, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. (Author)

Received: 2023-01-17 Accepted : 2023-02-14 Published : 2023-01-21

Keywords: Islamic Revolution, oil", rentier government", "Dutch Disease", Pahlavi government,

Abstract :

In Iran, since the beginning of oil exploration, the governments have not been able to properly exploit oil. If the oil revenues are not used properly, a rentier government will be formed and the Dutch disease will plague the national economy. The peak of the rentier government can be seen between 1353 and 1356. The Pahlavi government was a rentier state because it regularly received huge amounts of foreign rent. Therefore, Iran's oil revenues have little connection with the domestic economy and the domestic labor force. In fact, with the increase in oil revenues, the Pahlavi regime's independence from the domestic society reached such a degree that the government began to change the social structure and created support groups for itself and created supporting groups for himself and weakened opposing social groups such as marketers and clerics, which was one of the reasons for the formation of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Therefore, the question of this article is what effect did the structure of the rentier government have on the collapse of the Pahlavi government? And it is also the hypothesis that following the increase of oil revenues of the Pahlavi government by creating an absolute political structure and destroying the capacities and foundations of the production-oriented economy and based on tax revenues, it provided the basis for political, social and economic dissatisfaction and ultimately the collapse of the political system. This article is written in an analytical and descriptive way and its information is collected in a library way. In the end, the conclusion has been reached that the oil-owning countries, especially Iran, have no way to restore their economy except to exit from the single-product economy and increase tax revenues.