I suppose they can be thankful that their ultimate head of state resides in their own country unlike ours. Both though are heads of religious orders and both wield the deciding power, just ask Gough.

In Victoria where I am from the Constitution Act 1975 gives to the Governor the power to dissolve the Legislative Assembly and call an election.

An interesting quirk is that in order to pardon an offender the Queen must be physically present in Victoria.

Legislation requires governor approval.

Under our federal constitution the governor general has the ultimate say over our armed forces.

An Iranian could put a strong case that in law Australian democracy is controlled by the representatives of the head of the Anglican Church who is also the monarch of a foreign power.

One progressive part of the Iranian constitution is the parliamentary representation of religious minorities giving both Jews and Copic Christians members in their parliament. I think we could use a similar mechanism here for indigenous representation.

So I would put the case that our democracies are very similar in principle just poles apart in practice.

Therefore I would think any judgement about Iranian democracy should be made on latter rather than the former.

the primary difference between Australian and Iranian democracies is that Iran is ruled by robust misogynists while the misogynists who deny women a legislature in Australia are doomed by the imminence of an equal rights republic.

Dear foxy,

You wrote;
"Let's not kid ourselves - I don't think that Iran will ever be a democracy."

Perhaps to be a little more precise you might want to add 'again' to your statement.

Iran had a democracy until its very popular president Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh had the temerity to nationalize the oil reserves of the country in 1951. The CIA, under orders from President Eisenhower, proceeded with Operation Ajax which deposed him and gave control of the country to the Shah.

A bit like if the Yanks had become upset at us nationalizing uranium reserves and reacted by kicking out the government and putting Prince Charles in charge. Unfortunately for the Iranians the Shah was pretty nasty.

So yes they have enjoyed democracy in the past.

The interesting problem we have is how to view the referendums after the overthrow of the Shah? According to Wikipedia "Iran officially became an Islamic Republic on 1 April 1979 when Iranians overwhelmingly approved a national referendum to make it so." and "In December 1979, the country approved a theocratic constitution, whereby Khomeini became Supreme Leader of the country.".

If these were properly conducted processes then as supporters of democracy we must view them as valid expressions of the will of the Iranian people.

Do you agree?

prior to the election,
results of which are incomplete,
the men's legislature of the Islamic Republic of Iran,
was comprised of 2.8% women,
(8 women and 286 men).

Australia's men's legislatures are comprised of 26.7% women,
(40 women and 150 men) in the House of Representatives,
and 35.5% women, (27 women and 76 men) in the Senate.

http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm

the sovereign of the Republic of Iran is a man,
those of the Commonwealth of Australia are women.

extracted quote from
http://www.counterpunch.com/roberts06192009.html

....There is a power struggle among the ayatollahs...Many are aligned against Ahmadinejad because he accuses them of corruption,..thus playing to the Iranian countryside where Iranians believe the ayatollahs' lifestyles indicate an excess of power and money...In my opinion,Ahmadinejad's attack on the ayatollahs is opportunistic. However,..it does make it odd for his American detractors to say he is a conservative reactionary lined up with the ayatollahs.

Commentators are "explaining" the Iran elections based on their own illusions, delusions, emotions, and vested interests. Whether or not the poll results predicting Ahmadinejad's win are sound, there is, so far, no evidence beyond surmise that the election was stolen. However, there are credible reports that the CIA has been working for two years to destabilize the Iranian government.

On May 23, 2007, Brian Ross and Richard Esposito reported on ABC News:“The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert..“black” operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell ABC News.”

On May 27,2007,..the London Telegraph independently reported:“Mr. Bush has signed an official document endorsing CIA plans for a propaganda and disinformation campaign intended to destabilize,and eventually topple,the theocratic rule of the mullahs.”

A few days previously,the Telegraph reported on May 16, 2007,that Bush administration neocon warmonger John Bolton told the Telegraph that a US military attack on Iran would “be a ‘last option’..after economic sanctions and attempts to foment a popular revolution had failed.”

On June 29, 2008, Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker: “Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran,..according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources.

These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush,and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership.”

The protests in Tehran no doubt have many sincere participants. The protests also have the hallmarks of the CIA orchestrated protests in Georgia and Ukraine...It requires total blindness not to see this....

It starts when the IMF moves in..to offer a bribe to a tinpot dictator in a third world country...to privatise

He gets 10%..in exchange for taking out an exorbitant loan..for an infrastructure project..that the country can’t afford...When the country inevitably defaults on the loan payments,..the IMF begins to take over..[continued at link]
from
http://republicbroadcasting.org/?p=2720

On June 13th,..30000..“tweets”..begin to flood Twitter with live updates from Iran,..

Now,YouTube is providing a..“Breaking News”..link at the top of every page linking to the latest footage of the Iranian protests..

Welcome to Destabilization 2.0,..the latest version of a program that the western powers have..been running..for decades in order to overthrow foreign,..democratically elected governments..that don’t yield to the whims of western governments and multinational corporations.

Ironically,..Iran was also the birthplace of the original CIA program for destabilizing a foreign government.:..It’s 1953 and democratically-elected Iranian leader Mohammed Mossadegh..is following through on his election promises to nationalize industry for the Iranian people,..including the oil industry of Iran which was then controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

The CIA is sent into the country to bring an end to Mossadegh’s government...They begin a campaign of terror,staging bombings and attacks on Muslim targets in order to blame them on nationalist,secular Mossadegh.

They foster and fund an anti-Mossadegh campaign amongst the radical Islamist elements in the country...Finally,..they back the revolution that brings their favoured puppet,the Shah,into power...Within months,..their mission had been accomplished:..they had removed a democratically elected leader who threatened to build up an independent,..secular Persian nation and replaced him with a repressive tyrant whose secret police would brutally suppress all opposition.

The campaign was a success and the lead CIA agent wrote an after-action report describing...The pattern was to be repeated time and time again in country after country..(in Guatemala in 1954,in Afghanistan in the 1980s,..in Serbia in the 1990s),..but these operations leave the agency open to exposure.

What was..needed..was a different plan,..one where the western political/financial interests..puppeteering the revolution would be more difficult..to implicate in the overthrow.

Enter Destabilization..1.1...This version of the destabilization program is less messy,.offering plausible deniability..for the western powers/overthrowing a foreign government's...