The Iranian Revolution: A Precursor to Worldwide Populism?

Forty years ago, the Islamic Republic was taking shape in Iran. The outcome of this process was far more than a regime change: it upended Iran’s social order. The country’s new rulers prided themselves on their provincial non-elite background, and they have been pursuing nativist populist policies ever since. At the time, this rupture with the cosmopolitan pretensions of prerevolutionary governments and elites was seen as exceptional. In recent years, however, nativist populism has been gaining ground all over the world: east and west, north and south. This talk explores some of the parallels between the Iranian experience and that of other populist movements and governments, and discusses connections between them.