Exporting Democracy: Importing the Islamic Republic

Course Description

Summary

For decades the centerpiece of American foreign policy was spreading democracy and democratic values.  The (now-dissolved) US Agency for International Development (USAID) managed programs titled “Democracy and Governance”.   Officials from authoritarian countries around the world attended USAID-sponsored seminars, workshops, and courses promoting democratic values.   American diplomats regularly lectured foreign leaders on the importance of free, fair, and transparent elections.   The National Endowment for Democracy preached the same message and the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, the Carter Center, and others provided advice and observers for foreign elections.

These efforts, to put it mildly, had mixed results.  Americans’ democratic sermons had a poor reception from autocratic rulers who would have preferred receiving cash assistance with no conditions attached.   The Islamic Republic of Iran went farther.  Bolstered by enormous reserves of oil and gas, it openly rejected the democratic message and embarked on an explicitly undemocratic path.  The victors in Iran’s 1979 revolution proudly established a theocracy that forced citizens to obey revealed and unproved truth delivered by unelected leaders who ideas of government originated in an imaginary 7th century Arabian utopia.    In following this path, it enforced a puritanical lifestyle; it restricted access to power and influence to a closed circle of true believers; it punished lawyers, journalists, filmmakers, musicians, educators, and others who asked inconvenient questions.   It accused any who disagreed of being foreign agents, spreading corruption on earth, and waging war against God – all crimes subject to the death penalty.

This 3-day course examines, how Iran – with its long history of despotic rule – changed after 1979 from an autocratic monarchy into an authoritarian theocracy.   It will show how a revolution for freedom and justice created an even more repressive system than before.   It will examine how the ideas of the new theocracy – rejected by other Islamic states – have found a receptive audience in a country that has long been proud of its traditions of democracy and openness.  The course will pose the question: How has the Islamic Republic emerged victorious from its 47-year rivalry with the United States? 

Course dates: April 24, 25, & 26

Friday, April 24: 7:00PM-9:00 PM
Saturday, April 25: 9:00AM-12:00 PM & 1:00PM-4:00 PM
Sunday, April 26: 9:00AM-12:00 PM