The Political Economy Approach to the Economic Policies during Ahmadinejad's Presidency

Abstract

Ahmadinejad's rise to power in Iran's political structure was accompanied by a new round of economic policies. Iranian analysts have examined these policies from a variety of perspectives, while some believe that the economic orientation of this period was closely related to economic populism. Based on this, the main question of the preliminary research is that the economic policies of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidential period are relative to the macroeconomics of populism? The present paper attempts, from the perspective of political economy, using Durran Bush and Edwards' macroeconomic popolism) in the form of a populist approach as a political strategy and at the level of economic policy-making) while revising Ahmadinejad's economic policies, an explanation of the relationship between these policies and populist approaches to the economy as well as its consequences for the economy of Iran. The research findings show that Ahmadinejad, on the basis of populist economic policy makers, promised to support his supporters of poverty and inequality and the revival of justice, he worked with oil revenues to implement expansionary economic policies in the first two years of his presidency. Which ultimately led to the spread of liquidity, inflation, and recession, after which, since 2009, due to lower oil revenues, the ninth government turned to stabilizing policies and reduced its subsidies and economic development plans.

Keywords

• populism
• ahmadinejad government
• political strategy
• targeted subsidies
• poverty and inequality
• inflation and stagnation