Iran’s Third Front
Why the Iranian Regime Owns the Streets
I have a new piece out in the Journal of Democracy on something that has received far less attention than Iran’s military response or its institutional succession: the street.
Within hours of Khamenei’s killing, government supporters filled squares across the country. Thirty days in, Speaker Ghalibaf told Iranians: “Just as soldiers are not abandoning the missiles and the Strait of Hormuz, you should not abandon the streets either.” Missiles, the Strait, and the street — named as three equal fronts of resistance.
This was not spontaneous. It draws on four decades of organizational infrastructure — mosques, universities, state bureaucracy, and war commemoration — that my research has documented in detail.
The street in Iran is not empty terrain waiting to be seized. It is a resource that has been systematically built and repeatedly deployed.
Understanding this helps explain a central puzzle of the current moment: why the Islamic Republic has not collapsed.
Read the full piece:
https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclusive/why-the-iranian-regime-owns-the-streets/
I would argue that in times of internal crisis, I mean, when support for the regime is low, this is not necessarily meaningful.
On 22 July 1943 there was a 50.000-person mass demonstration in support of Mussolini. 3 days later he was ousted, and people, probably in the millions, poured into the streets to celebrate. So while it is surely a source of internal cohesion that limits the space for organized opposition, it could also be a fragile sign of resilience.
I wasn’t able to open the link to the “survey evidence” paper. Can you provide the citation here