Collapse of Constitutional Institutions and the Emergence of Sultanistic Authority in the Early Pahlavi Period

Abstract

This study provides a historical–sociological analysis of the collapse of constitutional institutions and the emergence of sultanistic authority during the early Pahlavi era in Iran. The Constitutional Revolution represented the first systematic attempt to transform absolutist monarchy into a rule-based political order through the establishment of parliament, constitutional law, and representative institutions. Despite these institutional innovations, constitutionalism developed within a socio-political environment lacking the structural foundations necessary for durable institutionalization. Weak state capacity, political instability, absence of organized political parties, security crises, and foreign intervention undermined the effectiveness of constitutional governance and gradually eroded public confidence in parliamentary rule. As the gap widened between constitutional ideals and governing realities, political discourse increasingly shifted from demands for liberty toward calls for order and centralized authority. The rise of Reza Shah must therefore be understood within this broader historical context. Through military consolidation, bureaucratic centralization, and state-led modernization, the new regime restored stability and strengthened state capacity. However, modernization was accompanied by the personalization of political power, transforming formal institutions into instruments of executive authority and producing a political structure consistent with sultanistic rule. The findings suggest that Pahlavi sultanism emerged not merely from individual ambition but from the gradual institutional erosion of constitutionalism and the incomplete process of political institutionalization during Iran’s transition to modernity. The study demonstrates that state modernization without autonomous political institutions can reinforce centralized authority while reproducing personalized governance within modern administrative forms.