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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
A decade ago, amidst general enthusiasm for nation-building activities, Samuel Huntington raised the question of whether political institutions might not decay as well as grow. Although he provided but a few guidelines to symptoms of institutional decay, he did introduce a healthy measure of skepticism into the literature on political development. This skepticism is particularly warranted in the case of representative institutions.
Throughout much of the Middle East, the life of both political parties and legislatures at the national level have tended to be more formal than real. Institutionbuilding has been attempted at the local level, too, although local politics has received far less attention from students of comparative politics. This essay discusses the roles of political representatives at the local level and the impact of the political milieu upon the way in which these roles are shaped and interpreted by their occupants.
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2. Douglas, C. F. Ashford, E. National Development and Local Reform (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1967)Google Scholar; Harris Proctor, J. “The Legislative Activity of the Egyptian National Assembly,” Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. XVII (Spring 1960), pp. 213-226Google Scholar; Ben-Tzur, Avraham “The Neo-Baath Party of Syria,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. III, No. 3 (1968), pp. 161-182CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for examples of the superficial results of institution-building experiences in the three areas.
3. Interviewees in the constituent group were representatives of various asnāf (guilds), four students and one housewife. The asnāf members represented a fairly broad cross-section of Isfahan in terms of income, occupation and ethnic background. The administrators included two Assistant Mayors, two District Mayors, the Director of the Transportation Company, an officer of the Water and Sewerage Company and the Director of the Isfahan municipal awqāf (Endowment Organization) The interviews usually took between an hour and one and one-half hours. An abbreviated interview also was held with the Imam Jum˓ah of Isfahan which was not complete and therefore is used as background. The interview schedule is included at the end of this article.
4. Zandi, Houshang A Collection of Laws and Regulations on Municipalities and City Service (in Persian) (Tehran: Kharazmi, 1968/9).Google Scholar The translation provided here is from a Ministry of Interior mimeograph.
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6. The brevity of their responses to this question in contrast to the others was one of several indications that the councillors did not feel at ease discussing their roles publicly. The security of a legally-defined answer is widely appreciated, but there was none available for use in this instance.
7. Three of the councillors did not answer this question--one argued that the council was effective; the other two deferred to the President of the council for his answer.
8. There were other, indirect, indications that the council members were extremely sensitive about their positions. One was that the council president asked for a personal letter of introduction for this researcher from the provincial governor. He argued that the governor's introduction to the mayor was inadequate because the mayor was subordinate to the council. The council was the most hesitant of the three groups to participate in the interviews, and it was only after the president was convinced that individual interviews were purely a matter of methodology that he was willing to accept such sessions. Despite this context, however, the interviews were often interrupted by the disclaimer that “of course, we have nothing to hide from one another.” Both the anxiety and the protestations were unique to the council members, among the three groups interviewed.
9. Halpern, Manfred The Politics of Social Change in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1963).Google Scholar
10. Bachrach, Peter The Theory of Democratic Elitism (Boston: Little, Brown, 1967)Google Scholar, discusses how the lack of congruence between voters’ needs and what areas decision makers concern themselves with breeds apathy.
11. Zonis, Marvin The Political Elite of Iran (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971).Google Scholar
