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Who Really Rules Iran?

Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader

Officially, Iran is an Islamic republic. The nation holds presidential and parliamentary elections every four years in which every adult can vote, and most do. It all sounds democratic. So why does the West call Iran a theocracy?

Because, since its revolution, Iran has operated under a dual power structure in which Muslim clerics--or institutions they dominate--oversee republican institutions, including the presidency and parliament. Within the system, Iran's elected leaders aren't its most powerful figures. Iranians elect their president, for example, but they don't elect their "supreme leader"--currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

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