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A couple of years ago, I found this picture, illustrating the relationships between organs of government in Iran. I was struck by the similarities between it and the UK.
On revisiting it over the last few weeks, I am less enamoured of the similarities. Originally I saw the Queen & Iran’s Supreme Leader as equivalent and the UK’s Premier & the Iranian President as equally the equivalent positions. The Guardian Council is the House of Lords and we should note that the Assembly of Experts is elected although whether these elections would be considered free and fair is another matter. Candidates are heavily vetted.
If you study the diagram and look at the powers appointment of the Supreme Leader, we can see that the British Premier is more powerful as all those appointments are made in the UK on the so-called recommendation of the Prime Minister.
At least the Iranian President is directly elected and the Supreme Leader indirectly so. Neither the British Prime Minister nor the Queen meet these tests, although I have come to the conclusion that a Prime Minister accountable to a Parliament, is more representative and democratic solution that a fixed term, un-recallable executive President.
I had been planning this post for several months, maybe years and the similarities interest me, but it can’t be allowed to stand without commenting that the state of civil liberties in the two countries are quite different. The World Bank’s World Government Index (2018) shows that for its six categories, Corruption, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, “Stability, Violence and Terrorism”, Regulatory Authority and “voice and accountability”, the UK is marked as +ive and Iran as -ive, the UK averages as in the 87th percentile, Iran as in in 23rd percentile. Iran has the death penalty and severe forms of corporal punishment, the UK does not.
Amnesty International’s report shows that Iran is not a respecter of Human Rights, but the diagram and comparison does go to show, that the UK could probably do better.
Originally published at https://davelevy.info on July 4, 2018.
