People's Party (Iran)

People's Party (Persian: حزب مردم‎, romanized: Ḥezb-e Mardom) was a liberal[1] political party in Pahlavi era Iran. It was one of two major parties in the apparent attempt to decree a two-party system by Mohammad Reza Shah, apparently opposition to the ruling New Iran Party and previously Party of Nationalists. The party was dissolved in 1975, in order to be merged into newly founded Resurgence Party, the only legal party in the attempted single-party system.[2]

People's Party
Leader	Asadollah Alam
Founded	16 May 1957
Dissolved	2 March 1975
Merged into	Resurgence Party
Ideology	Royalism Liberalism
Politics of Iran Political parties Elections

Leadership

Secretary-Generals Name Tenure Ref Asadollah Alam 1957–1960 Yahya Adl 1960–1971 Alinaghi Kani 1971–1972 Yahya Adl 1972–1973 Nasser Ameri 1973–1975 Mohammad Fazaeli 1975 Electoral history Parliament Year Seats +/– Ref 1956 36 / 136(26%) N/A [3]^:73 1960 25 / 200(13%) N/A 1961 65 / 200(33%) 29 [3]^:73 1963 16 / 200(8%) 49 [3]^:74 1967 31 / 219(14%) 15 [3]^:74 1971 37 / 268(14%) 6 [3]^:74 Senate (elective seats) Year Seats +/– Ref 1960 Un­known N/A 1963 Un­known N/A 1967 4 / 30(13%) 1971 2 / 30(7%) 2 Reception The party was often criticized for its "lethargic, belated and disorganized" election campaigns, as well as being incapable of prepararing a viable alternative to the New Iran Party's platform, thus blamed for the latter's continuing domination of the political scene.[4] American diplomat Andrew Killgore, described the party "made up of cliques of followers of a few competing leaders who cooperate with one another for personal and pragmatic reasons but not out of any sense of party unity", what he calls a "traditional Iranian political party".[5] In popular culture According to Ervand Abrahamian, People's Party and New Iran Party were interchangeably called "Yes Sir, Party" (Persian: حزب بله‌قربان‎) and "Yes of Course Sir, Party" (Persian: حزب چشم‌قربان‎) by people, as members of the two parties in the National Consultative Assembly were assigned to their affiliation by Shah and with the help of SAVAK.[6] References Cottam, Richard W. (1979). Nationalism in Iran: Updated Through 1978. University of Pittsburgh Pre. p. 297. ISBN 0822974207. Rumor in Tehran had it that Melliyun ("conservative") had been allotted two seats for each seat given Mardom ("liberal") , and as the returns began... Chehabi, Houchang E. (1990) Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini. I.B.Tauris Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, ISBN 0-19-924958-X Ramazani, Rouhollah K. (1974). "Iran's 'White Revolution': a Study in Political Development". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 5 (2): 124–139 (subscription required). doi:10.1017/S0020743800027781. JSTOR 162585. Andrew I. Killgore (30 October 1972), Letter From the Embassy in Iran to the Country Director for Iran (Miklos), Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State Abrahamian, Ervand. (2008) History of Modern Iran. Cambridge University Press.