St. Petersburg: Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie, 2007. 240 p. (Iranica)

The work of the Iranian researcher 'Abbas Manuchihri opens a new book series - "Iranica", which includes publications on various aspects of the social and cultural life of modern Iran. This series reproduces in Russian the similar Iranian series "The Book about Iran", published by the Center for International Cultural Studies under the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Relations of Iran.

In the late XX - early XXI centuries, the study of the political systems of Islamic societies became very relevant. Researchers are particularly interested in the specifics of Islamic rule in modern Iran, which is opposed to the political, economic and cultural model of the West. The Islamic leadership of the country has proposed a strategy for the development of the state, an alternative to the Western one. As a result, considering the political system of modern Iran against the background of other systems of the world community is a very timely task.

The undoubted advantage of the book is the representation of the Iranian political system in its diversity: from its main components, such as various state authorities, parties, and other political organizations, to the peculiarities of political culture, the participation of the people in political life, and the characteristic understanding of human rights.

Manuchihri pays great attention to the study of the history of the state development of Iran, the formation of the constitutional order, the birth of the democratic foundations of the modern state, which allows the reader to get a fairly complete picture of the political system of Iran in the past and present.

The monograph is divided into four parts. In the first one, "Fundamental Rights in Iran", the author tries to show the origin of the constitutional order in the country and the formation on its basis.-

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state authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This part contains a statement of the main provisions of the Constitution and covers the level of powers of such state bodies as the Council of Experts, the Assembly for Determining State Expediency, the Majlis (Parliament), the Council for Monitoring the Implementation of the Constitution, the Cabinet of Ministers, the President, the Supreme Court and other judicial authorities, Islamic Councils, and the Supreme National Security Council. An important place in the Constitution is given to the activities of the country's Supreme Leader-Rahbar, who, in fact, coordinates and authorizes the work of designated bodies in the state and has a decisive voice in making major political decisions.

Showing the supreme role of the country's leader in the state government, Manuchihri at the same time emphasizes that the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran presupposes the sovereignty of the people, which is embodied in three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial. All three branches of government function under the control of the Imam (Wali-yi faqih) but are independent of each other. The purpose of the separation of powers is to prevent the concentration of all control levers in the hands of a single individual or group of individuals, in order to exclude both personal and collective dictatorship. Each of the branches of government, according to the Constitution, has its own tasks and is able to find ways to solve them, although no one is immune from mistakes that can cause serious political contradictions in the establishment of Islamic democracy. However, the coordinating role of the supreme leader provided for in the system of Islamic government makes it possible to prevent deviations in the development of the Islamic state.

The achievement of three independent branches of government in Iran as a result of the Islamic Revolution, according to the author, created prerequisites for the implementation in practice of the basic constitutional rights of the Iranian people. Manuchihri believes that the very diversity of the bodies of these branches of government, each of which has its own narrow sphere of competence, speaks about the maturity of the Iranian political system and at the same time about its fundamental difference from other democratic systems in the world.

The author notes such an important feature of the Iranian political system as the priority of legislative power over executive power. It is the legislative branch, not the government or the president, that, according to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is "a symbol of will and national sovereignty." This is confirmed by the fact that the President is obliged to sign the resolution of the Mejlis or the results of the referendum within five days. But even without the President's signature, the Chairman of the Mejlis has the right to submit the draft law for publication in the official press after five days, which is obliged to publish it within 72 hours, after which it enters into legal force. Thus, the President's signature on a law that has already been approved by the Parliament is only a formality.

Manuchihri indicates that the president is rather tightly controlled by the Mejlis. If a majority vote of parliamentarians passes a resolution on the President's non-compliance with his post or passes a vote of no confidence in the Cabinet of Ministers, the Cabinet of Ministers and the President are removed from their duties. Apart from the political responsibility imposed on the President, he is not exempt from either criminal or civil liability. Thus, the author emphasizes that Islamic rule deprives any secular person of the opportunity to rise above the rights of the people and above the religious authority of Sharia.

As for the judiciary, it controls the implementation of the laws of the Islamic Republic on the basis of the powers granted to it. This duty is assigned to two judicial authorities: the Supreme Court, which monitors the proper implementation of laws in lower courts, and the General Inspectorate, which is responsible for taking investigative measures or for evading the implementation of the law. It is interesting to compare the author's Iranian judicial practice with sanitary measures, when the primary intention is to prevent the process of infection of society with any disease, and only then to treat those infected. In other words, the judicial system should not wait for a crime to be committed before punishing it. It is necessary to take measures to prevent crimes.

Along with the advantages, Manuchihri also highlights the disadvantages of judicial practice. He is concerned about the new structure of the judiciary (the merger of criminal and civil courts and the abolition of the Prosecutor's Office), which aims to simplify court formalities in order to determine the degree of guilt of the accused as soon as possible and is determined by the desire to avoid a complex and lengthy trial. In this regard, it recognizes the criticisms of some Iranian religious figures and experts about excessive haste in the implementation of judicial proceedings, and considers that this practice of the judicial authorities is only temporary.

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Speaking about the interaction of the three branches of government, Manuchihri notes that their separation has a different character than in Western states. In the political system of Iran, all three branches of government are under the control of the Supreme Leader of the republic and are independent, but not separate from each other. The Constitution provides for constant interaction between them.

The second part of the book - "Human Rights in Iran" - is devoted to the study of the development of human rights within the framework of the Iranian political system. Individual rights and freedoms are an integral part of a modern democratic State. Today, according to the author, the realization of such human rights and freedoms in the political system of the state is an achievement not only of the West, but also of those countries that have recently embarked on the path of democratization.

The Iranian state has developed and is improving a special system of freedoms and human rights. It differs from the Western ones in that it is based primarily on Islamic principles and traditions and establishes for society the order according to which this society, before being considered legal, must become moral. Thus, morality in this system of values is higher than law. In connection with this provision, it is appropriate to note 'Abbas Manuchihri that Western society is traditionally more tied to formal rights than Islamic society.

As in Western constitutions, the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran recognizes freedom of political, economic, cultural and social beliefs along with freedom of religion. Citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran have the right to join and participate in various political, social, professional and economic societies and organizations. Within these organizations, the people have every right to criticize the work of the ruling circles.

However, as the author states, the rights granted to the people are not and should not be unlimited. The difference between the Islamic political system is that the criterion for the approval of human rights is their compliance with the basic Islamic norms and principles of the Islamic state. People have the right to express and defend their opinions as long as it does not become a threat to the security of the social order.

In the third part of the book - "The participation of the people in the political life of Iran" - Manuchihri talks about the equally important characteristics of the Iranian political system: the ways of expressing public opinion, as well as the participation of the people in the political life of the country. The experience of developed countries shows that the higher the degree of this participation, the more viable the political system of a particular State. The author shares this point of view, considering that the participation of the people in the political life of the country contributes to the creation and strengthening of new power structures. This indicates the ability of the political system to develop dynamically in the modern world.

This is confirmed, according to Manuchihri, by the experience of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, when the revolutionary movement in Iran, having acquired a mass character, was able to establish a new system of power in the country in a short time. In fact, the very purpose of this revolution was, according to the author, so that the people could get the right to participate in the political life of the country. Everyone's participation in the fate of their country is not only a matter of conscience or belief, but also a national necessity. Comprehensive interaction between the people and the state requires the development of a multinational identity, which, in the author's opinion, will serve to strengthen the Islamic state itself.

In the fourth part - "Iran's Foreign Policy" - the author tries to follow the process of formation and strengthening of the Iranian political system in certain historical conditions. The history of Iran's foreign policy shows that the country's political system was formed and modified over a long period of time under the influence of external forces. Until 1979, the Iranian political system had no internal core, no opportunity to form its national identity. Manuchihri emphasizes that, being under constant external pressure from one or another Western state, the political system of Iran absorbed one or another of the stereotypes of the state structure imposed on it.

After the Islamic Revolution, the new government, having established the principle of Islamic rule in the country, followed its own course of state development, different from the Western one. Positioning itself in the international arena as a completely independent state entity with its own special system of government, Iran was able to create a stable political system, which, according to the author, became a kind of guarantor of security in the region.

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Today, Iran is a fairly strong and stable state in the Middle East region due to the effective institutions that form the country's political system. In his research, Manuchihri manages to show this system of state structure and identify its characteristics that ensure the fulfillment by the political system of the most important function of effective internal political interaction. The author's attention to the properties of the political system that make it unique among other political systems of the world community also deserves recognition.

Like any study, a peer-reviewed book is not without its drawbacks. The main omission of the author is the lack of a personal position on the prospects for the development of Islamic democracy in the modern world as a political system as a whole. Manuchihri does not answer the question of whether the type of Islamic government established in the country will be able to withstand the challenges of modern times, thus ensuring the fulfillment of the function of preserving and adapting the political system. In addition, the complex processes associated with the formation of the modern political system of Iran lack its comparative analysis and characteristics of its relationship with other world political systems. This deprives the work of its objectivity and a more accurate assessment of the regime established in the country. In the future, the author needs to involve more foreign sources in the research, as well as pay attention to specific examples of the participation of the Iranian people in the country's political life.

The peer-reviewed study is the first detailed presentation of the foundations of the modern Iranian political system and is a good foundation for the next more meaningful and practically sound analysis of it. This book will attract the attention of those who are interested in the past and present of the Iranian state.

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