Thursday March 26, third period

Sorry it's late!
First he talked about colleges, the tests, timed writes, CQs, et cetera...

Iran
The Islamic republic of Iran today is a mixture of theocracy and democracy. It’s the theocracy that makes Iran unique. Iran has a political system based on clerical, or church, authority, as well as popular sovereignty. It’s based on the divine rights of the clergy as well as the rights of the people. It’s based on concepts derived from early Islam as well as form modern democratic principles such as the separation of powers. The country has regular elections for the presidency and for their parliament, which is called Majles. But in Iran, a clerically dominated “Guardian Council” determines who can and cannot run for president of the parliament. The President is the formal head of the executive branch of government but he can be overruled and even dismissed by the chief cleric, who is known as the Supreme Leader. The President appoints the Minister of Justice, but the whole judiciary is under the supervision of the Chief Judge, who is not the Minister of Justice. The Chief Judge is appointed directly by the supreme leader. So there’s a typically bureaucratic government, with a Ministry of Justice with a Minister, and also a Senior Cleric, the Supreme Leader, appointing the Chief Judge, who is overlooking the entire system. The Majles is the legislative branch of government, but its bills do NOT become law unless the Guardian Council deems them to be compatible with the Islamic religion and with Iran’s Islamic Constitution.

The income form oil has made Iran into a textbook example of a rentier state, meaning a state that has rents. A rentier state is a subsystem of a renier economy, which is an economy that is heavily supported by state expenditures while the state itself continuously receives rent from abroad.

Although modern Iran traces it’s roots to the ancient Iranian empire of 6th century BC, and it’s Islamic religion, to the Arab invasions of the 17th century, it’s current national identity, or it’s interpretation of Islam is Shi’ism (Shi’ite).

1501-1722 – Safavid Dynasty
1794-1935 – rule by Qajar Dynasty
1925-1979 – Pahlavi Dynasty
Then the Islamic Revolution, or Cultural Revolution, of 1979, which led to the establishment of the current Islamic republic