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Seminar on Iranian Studies
Organized
by: London Academy of Iranian Studies
“Tehran Municipality: from Public Service to Civil Participation”
By: Majid Hosseini, Media Advisor to Tehran Mayor, Nasser Assadi, Director of Media Cultural Center
Although the new roles of municipalities in Iran legalized by executing the law of city council elections in 2000, it was a consensus among policy makers about the necessity of transforming the functions of municipalities in the early 1990s. Before 2000, the main responsibility and function of the municipalities were cleaning the streets and alleys of cities and related services. Due to urban and housing policies of Islamic Republic of Iran in the early years of 1980s, the population of marginalized groups increased in the large cities and especially in Tehran. Furthermore, the Iran –Iraq war forced many inhabitants of the war damaged southwestern provinces to fleet to Tehran and its suburbs. During this period, the first priority of political system was managing the corollaries of war and therefore municipalities ignored violation of urban laws and illegal constructions in the cities and suburbs.
The end of the Iran-Iraq war and emergence of new political atmosphere and particularly Rafsanjani rise to power in the late of 1980s changed the perception of mayors and municipalities among politicians. The new president, Rafsanjani selected one of his close allies, Karbaschi as the mayor of Tehran. The main mission of new mayor was to reconstruct and rejuvenate Tehran and make it as a role model for other capitals of Islamic countries. This was concomitant with the détente policy of Islamic Republic and encouraging pragmatic policies in domestic and foreign policy. In this sense, Tehran mayor had great and considerable mandate to control untidy expansion of city and establishing new centers to attract intellectuals and citizens in civil activities. He constructed the cultural centers or so-called Farhangsarha in Tehran by modern and sometimes western architecture to increase the participation of citizens in the cultural and social affairs. Many musicians, moviemakers, poets, artists and intellectuals gathered in these centers and presented their works. Moreover, Karbaschi built new and modern Shahrvand chain markets in Tehran that became a rival for traditional bazaar that was controlled by conservative and hardliner political wings. In sum, the middle classes and modern strata in Tehran were satisfied with the new changes in the spatial organization of Tehran in modern way. In the final years of Rafsanjani's presidency, many expected Karbaschi to compete in the 1997 presidential elections. Although he did not prefer to participate in the presidential campaign due to personal deliberations, he played a critical role in the victory of Khatami and reformists in 1997 and this angered his conservative rivals and they blamed him for corruption in the municipality. One of the main ramifications of broadcasting the Karbaschi public trial via state TV was politicizing the role of Tehran mayors and increasing their importance in the political calculations of politicians. Beside this, Tehran mayors have attempted to increase their popularity through cooperation with different NGOs and professional and civil associations.
The main consequence of the city council elections in Iran is electing the mayors by city councils rather than interior ministry. In contrast to other elections in Iran, the candidacy in city elections is too easy and Guardian Council does not qualify them by religious and revolutionary criterions. City councils have defined new roles and mandates for the mayors and the cabinet cannot intervene in the process of electing the mayors and their functions. These new roles are part of broader but vulnerable process of decentralization in Iran and therefore politicians can exert pressures on the process of electing the mayors like what happened in the case of the electing present mayor of Tehran in 2006. At the same time observing the actions of municipalities by civil institutions has intensified and thus nowadays it is too difficult to blame the mayors for the cultural, social and even political activities. In political science terminology, the mayors are the main driving forces of decentralization in Iran that may result in democratization in long term. Although this type of democratization is top-down and may be regarded inefficient or congenial, it is clear that the state cannot be ignored in developing countries like Iran.
Tehran municipality is a very extended and huge administrative body and is to large extent independent from the government financially and this is critical in designing independent plans and executing them by the mayors. |