View source for Islamic Republican Party

{{Short description|1979–1987 state political party in Iran}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox political party
| colorcode        = {{party color|Islamic Republican Party}}
| name             = Islamic Republican Party
| native_name      = حزب جمهوری اسلامی
| logo             = Logo of the Islamic Republican Party.png
| leader1_title    = [[Party leader|Historic leader]]
| leader1_name     = [[Ruhollah Khomeini]]
| founders         = [[Ali Khamenei]]<ref name="jplaw"/><br />[[Mohammad Beheshti]]<ref name=jplaw>{{cite journal |last=Asayesh |first=Hossein |author2=Adlina Ab. Halim |author3=Jayum A. Jawan |author4=Seyedeh Nosrat Shojaei |title=Political Party in Islamic Republic of Iran: A Review |journal=Journal of Politics and Law |date=March 2011 |volume=4 |issue=1 |doi=10.5539/jpl.v4n1p221 |url=http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jpl/article/view/9606/6898 |access-date=29 July 2013|doi-access=free }}</ref>
{{Collapsible list
 | title = {{nobold|...{{nbsp}}''and others''}}
 | [[Mohammad Javad Bahonar]]<ref name="jplaw"/>
 | [[Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani]]<ref name="jplaw"/>
 | [[Abdolkarim Mousavi-Ardabili]]<ref name="jplaw"/>
}}
| foundation       = {{start date|1979|2|17|df=y}}<ref name="AZ">{{cite book |author=John H. Lorentz|chapter=Islamic Republican Party (IRP)|title=The A to Z of Iran |volume=209|series=The A to Z Guide Series|publisher=Scarecrow Press|pages=143–144|date=2010|isbn=978-1461731917}}</ref>
| dissolution      = {{end date|1987|6|1|df=y}}<ref name="AZ"/>
| headquarters     = [[Tehran]], [[Iran]]<ref>{{citation|first1=Barry M.|last1=Rubin|first2=Judith Colp|last2=Rubin|entry=The Iranian Revolution and The War in Afghanistan|title=Chronologies of Modern Terrorism|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|date=2008|isbn=9780765622068|page=246|quote=In Tehran, Iran, a bomb set by the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), a leftist group with a philosophy combining Marxism and Islam, explodes at the headquarters of the ruling Islamic Republican Party, killing 73 people, including the party's founder, chief justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, four cabinet ministers and 23 parliament members.}}</ref>
| newspaper        = ''[[Islamic Republican (newspaper)|Jomhouri-e Eslami]]''<ref name="ea">{{cite book|author=Ervand Abrahamian|author-link=Ervand Abrahamian|title=Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin|publisher=[[I.B.Tauris]]|pages=42–45|date=1989|isbn=9781850430773}}</ref>
| wing1_title      = {{nowrap|Paramilitary wing}}
| wing1            = [[Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps|Revolutionary Guards]]<ref>{{cite book|author=Said Amir Arjomand|title=The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran|url=https://archive.org/details/turbanforcrownis00arjo|url-access=limited|series=Studies in Middle Eastern history|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/turbanforcrownis00arjo/page/n148 136]|date=1988|isbn=9780195042580}}</ref>
| wing2_title      = [[Trade union]]
| wing2            = [[Workers' House]]
| ideology         = [[Khomeinism]]<ref>{{cite book|author1=M Nasif Sharani|editor1-last=Esposito|editor1-first=John L.|editor2-last=Shahin|editor2-first=Emad El-Din|title=The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195395891|page=196}}</ref>
* [[Islamism]]<ref>{{citation|title=Ways to survive, battles to win: Iranian women exiles in the Netherlands and United States|first=Halleh|last=Ghorashi|publisher=Nova Publishers|year=2002|isbn=978-1-59033-552-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/waystosurvivebat0000ghor/page/63 63]|url=https://archive.org/details/waystosurvivebat0000ghor/page/63}}</ref>
* [[Theocracy]]<ref name="ea"/><ref name=KEA1993:33-36>[[#KEA1993|Abrahamian, ''Khomeinism'', 1993]]: pp. 33–36.</ref>
* [[Populism]]<ref name="ea">{{cite book|author=Ervand Abrahamian|author-link=Ervand Abrahamian|title=Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin|publisher=[[I.B.Tauris]]|pages=42–45|date=1989|isbn=9781850430773}}</ref>
* [[Political Islam]]<ref name=KEA1993:33-36/>
* [[Clericalism]]<ref name="ea"/>
* [[Anti-imperialism]]<ref name="ea"/>
* [[Anti-Marxism]]<ref name="ea"/>
{{Collapsible list
| title = '''Factions:'''
 | [[Planned economy]]<ref name="Columbia">{{Citation|first1=Olivier|first2=Roy|last1=Antoine|last2=Sfeir|title=The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2007|page=150}}</ref>
 | [[Free market economy]]<ref name="Columbia"/>
 | [[Political radicalism|Radicalism]]<ref name="AZ"/>
 | [[Realpolitik|Pragmatism]]<ref name="AZ"/>
}}
| slogan           = "One nation, one religion, one order, one leader"<ref name="ea"/>
| membership       = 2.5 million (1979 {{estimation}})<ref>{{citation|title=New Iran bursting with mass politics|publisher=Detroit Free Press|page=28|date=20 June 1979}}</ref>
| religion         = [[Shia Islam]]
| position         = [[Big tent]]<ref name="Columbia"/>
| affiliation1_title = [[Electoral alliance]]
| affiliation1     = [[Coalition of Islamic Parties|Islamic Coalition]] ([[1979 Iranian Constitutional Assembly election|1979]])<ref name="Adib-Moghaddam">{{cite book|first=Arshin|last=Adib-Moghaddam|title=A Critical Introduction to Khomeini|date=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-72906-3|page=112}}</ref><br>[[Grand coalition (Iran)|Grand Coalition]] ([[1980 Iranian legislative election|1980]])<ref name="b">{{cite book |author=Houchang E. Chehabi|title=Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini|publisher=I.B.Tauris|pages=283|date=1990|isbn=1850431981}}</ref>
| country          = Iran
}}

The '''Islamic Republican Party''' (IRP; {{langx|fa|حزب جمهوری اسلامی|Ḥezb-e Jomhūrī-e Eslāmī}}, also translated '''Islamic Republic Party''') was formed in 1979 to assist the [[Iranian Revolution]] and [[Ruhollah Khomeini|Ayatollah Khomeini]] in their goal to establish [[theocracy in Iran]]. It was disbanded in 1987 due to internal conflicts.

== Founders and characteristics ==
The party was formed just two weeks following the revolution upon the request of Ayatollah Khomeini.<ref name=mes94 /> Five cofounders of the party were [[Mohammad Javad Bahonar]], [[Mohammad Beheshti]], [[Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani]], [[Ali Khamenei]], and [[Abdolkarim Mousavi-Ardabili]].<ref name=mes94 /><ref name=jplaw/> Early members of the central committee of the party, in addition to founding members, were [[Hassan Ayat]], [[Asadollah Badamchiyan]], [[Abdullah Jasbi]], [[Mir Hossein Mousavi]], [[Habibollah Asgaroladi|Habibollah Askar Oladi]], [[Mahmoud Kashani|Sayyed Mahmoud Kashani]], [[Mahdi Araqi|Mahdi Araghi]], and [[Ali Derakhshan (politician)|Ali Derakhshan]].<ref name=jplaw /> The party had three general secretaries: Beheshti, Bahonar and Khamenei.<ref name=jplaw />

The party has been said to be distinguished by "its strong clerical component, its loyalty to Khomeini, its strong animosity to the liberal political movements, and its tendency to support the revolutionary organizations", such as the ''komiteh.''  Policies it supported included the state takeover of large capital enterprises, the establishment of an Islamic cultural and university system, and programs to assist the poor.<ref name="Bakhash, 1984 p.67">Bakhash, ''Reign of the Ayatollahs'', (1984), p. 67</ref> These revolutionary [[ayatollah]]s originally used the party to form a monopoly over the post-revolutionary theocratic Iranian state. In its struggle with civilian opponents, the party made use of its ties to the [[Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps|Revolutionary Guards]] and [[Hezbollah of Iran|Hezbollah]].

=== Secretaries-general ===
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:100%; line-height:16px;"
|-
!Name
!Tenure
!Ref
|-
||[[Mohammad Beheshti]]
||1979–1981
||<ref name=jplaw />
|-
||[[Mohammad Javad Bahonar]]
||1981
||<ref name=jplaw />
|-
||[[Ali Khamenei]]
||1981–1987
||<ref name=jplaw />
|}

==Causes of its dissolution==
[[File:President Ali Khamenei meet Non-Iranian Hawza students - Office of the Islamic Republican Party in Qom.jpg|thumb|Ali Khamenei at the party's office in [[Qom]], 1983]]
In the late 1980s, factionalism in the IRP intensified, the major issues being the Iran-Iraq War, whether to open up to foreign countries or remain isolated, and economic policies. Because all rival parties had been banned, the party "did almost nothing and had little incentive to."<ref>Keddie, Nikkie, ''Modern Iran'', 2003, pp. 259-60</ref> According to Ahmad Mneisi,<blockquote>"While unanimous on the idea of a theological state and united under the umbrella of one party, the Islamic Republican Party (IRP), [the religious right] differed on a number of issues, such as the extent to which religion is to take hold of political life (the [[Velayat-e Faqih]] debate).<ref>Mneisi, Ahmad.  [https://web.archive.org/web/20041214090447/http://www.ahram.org.eg/acpss/eng/ahram/2004/7/5/EGYP1.HTM 2004. The Power shift within Iran's right wing] ''Ahram'', 5 July 2004</ref></blockquote>

Daniel Brumberg argued that the IRP was dissolved to weaken popular Prime Minister [[Mir-Hossein Mousavi]], as the party had become a stronghold of radical activism backing him in his dispute with President [[Ali Khamenei]].<ref>Brumberg, Daniel, ''Reinventing Khomeini : The Struggle for Reform in Iran'', University of Chicago Press, 2001, p. 134</ref> Another report states that it was dissolved in May 1987 due to internal conflicts,<ref name="jplaw"/><ref name=nikou>{{cite web|last=Nikou|first=Semira N.|title=Timeline of Iran's Political Events|url=http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/timeline-irans-political-events|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028103238/http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/timeline-irans-political-events|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 October 2010|work=United States Institute of Peace|access-date=27 July 2013}}</ref> and the party was disbanded upon joint proposal of Rafsanjani and  Khamenei on 2 May 1987 when their proposal was endorsed by Khomeini.<ref name=mes94>{{cite journal|last=Behrooz|first=Maziar|title=Factionalism in Iran under Khomeini|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|date=October 1994|volume=27|issue=4|pages=597–614|jstor=4283464|doi=10.1080/00263209108700879}}</ref>

== 1983 congress ==
The party held its first congress in May 1983 and the members elected the 30-members central council as follows:<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Mohammadighalehtaki|first=Ariabarzan|date=2012|title=Organisational Change in Political Parties in Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. With Special Reference to the Islamic Republic Party (IRP) and the Islamic Iran Participation Front Party (Mosharekat)|page= |type=Ph.D. thesis|publisher=[[Durham University]]|url=http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3507/|pages=159–161}}</ref>
{{Col-begin}}{{Col-break}}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%;"
! #
! Member (faction)
! Votes
|-
| 1
| [[Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani]] (R)
| 647
|-
| 2
| [[Ali Khamenei]] (R)
| 646
|-
| 3
| Mohammad Mehdi Rabbani Amlashi (R)
| 637
|-
| 4
| [[Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani]] (R)
| 634
|-
| 5
| [[Ali Akbar Velayati]] (R)
| 624
|-
| 6
| [[Abbas Vaez Tabasi]] (R) 
| 623
|-
| 7
| [[Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri]] (R)
| 612
|-
| 8
| [[Ali Akbar Parvaresh]] (R)
| 589
|-
| 9
| [[Abbas Sheibani]] (R)
| 579
|-
| 10
| Mohamma Reza Beheshti (L)
| 578
|-
| 11
| [[Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi]] (R)
| 574
|-
| 12
| Masih Mohajeri (L)
| 570
|-
| 13
| [[Hassan Ghafourifard]] (R)
| 550
|-
| 14 
| [[Mir-Hossein Mousavi]] (L)
| 554
|-
| 15 
| [[Habibollah Asgaroladi]] (R)
| 542
|}
{{col-break}}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%;"
! #
! Member (faction)
! Votes
|-
| 16
| Mohsen Doagou Feizabaadi (R)
| 500
|-
| 17
| [[Abolghasem Sarhaddizadeh]] (L)
| 499
|-
| 18
| Gholamhossein Sharifkhani
| 460
|-
| 19
| [[Mohammad Reza Bahonar]] (R)
| 453
|-
| 20 
| [[Asadollah Lajevardi]] (R)
| 430
|-
| 21 
| [[Asadollah Badamchian]] (R)
| 428
|-
| 22 
| Javad Mansouri (L)
| 414
|-
| 23 
| [[Reza Zavare'i]] (R)
| 410
|-
| 24 
| [[Abdollah Jassbi]] (R)
| 375
|-
| 25 
| Morteza Nabavi (R)
| 372
|-
| 26 
| [[Saeed Amani]] (R)
| 310
|-
| 27 
| Mohieddin Fazel Harandi (R)
| 276
|-
| 28 
| [[Mostafa Mir-Salim]] (R)
| 260
|-
| 29 
| Mohammad-Hossein Asgharnia
| 231
|-
| 30
| Javad Eje'i (L)
| 223
|}
{{col-end}}

== Allied organizations ==
The following organizations formed an alliance with the party:<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Mohammadighalehtaki|first=Ariabarzan|date=2012|title=Organisational Change in Political Parties in Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. With Special Reference to the Islamic Republic Party (IRP) and the Islamic Iran Participation Front Party (Mosharekat)|type=Ph.D. thesis|publisher=[[Durham University]]|url=http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3507/|page=165}}</ref>
* [[Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization]]
* [[Islamic Coalition Party]]
* [[Combatant Clergy Association]]
* [[Worker House]]

== Electoral history ==

=== Presidential elections ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
!Election
!Main candidate
!Votes
!%
!Result
|-
|align:left|[[1980 Iranian presidential election|1980]]
|[[Hassan Habibi]]
|674,859 
|3.35 
|3rd
|-
|align:left|[[July 1981 Iranian presidential election|1981, July]]
|[[Mohammad-Ali Rajai]]
|12,779,050
|87.69
|'''1st'''
|-
|align:left|[[October 1981 Iranian presidential election|1981, October]]
|[[Ali Khamenei]]
|16,007,072
|95.01
|'''1st'''
|-
|align:left|[[1985 Iranian presidential election|1985]]
|[[Ali Khamenei]]
|12,203,870
|87.90
|'''1st'''
|}

=== Parliamentary elections ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
!Election
!Party leader
!Seats
!+/–
!Position
|-
|[[1980 Iranian legislative election|1980]]
|[[Mohammad Beheshti]]
|{{composition bar|85|270|hex={{party color|Islamic Republican Party}}}}
|{{n/a}}
|1st
|-
|[[1984 Iranian legislative election|1984]] 
|[[Ali Khamenei]]
|{{composition bar|130|270|hex={{party color|Islamic Republican Party}}}}
|{{increase}} 45
| 1st
|-
|}

== See also ==
* [[List of largest political parties]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-other|[[Ruling party]] of [[Iran]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{s-vac|last=[[Resurgence Party]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Islamic Republican Party|years=1981–1987}}
{{s-vac}}
{{s-end}}
{{Iran defunct parties}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Party, Islamic Republican}}
[[Category:1979 establishments in Iran]]
[[Category:1987 disestablishments in Iran]]
[[Category:Anti-communist parties]]
[[Category:Anti-imperialist organizations]]
[[Category:Defunct political parties of the Islamic Republic of Iran]]
[[Category:Iranian clerical political groups]]
[[Category:Islamic political parties in Iran]]
[[Category:Khomeinist groups]]
[[Category:Parties of one-party systems]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1979]]
[[Category:Political parties disestablished in 1987]]
[[Category:Political parties of the Iranian Revolution]]
[[Category:Populism in Iran]]
[[Category:Populist parties]]
[[Category:Republican parties]]
[[Category:Shia Islamic political parties]]