A Comparative Study on the Law Governing Political Parties in Islamic Republic of Iran and Germany: Assessment on Legal Status of the Public Sphere

Abstract

The present study aims to determine the status of public sphere in the legal system of Iran through a comparative study on political parties in law of Iran and Germany. Meaningful participation of citizens in public affairs and the originality of politics is dependent on the strength of the public sphere and actions of individuals in it. Political parties are the most efficient entities of the public sphere, and their freedom and role in construction of politics reveals the status of the public sphere in a political society in the best way. The research method is comparative study with inductive approach. The findings indicate that under Iranian law, despite the fact that the Constitution ensures the freedom of parties in a higher level than Germany, in parliamentary enactments the function of political parties is acting within the existing policies, their establishment mechanism is complex, the way to monitor them is mostly approving, a prior and political and monitoring and enforcement are confused. The inductive extension of the findings to the public sphere results that in Iran the public sphere legally lacks strength and its promotion requires the amendment of laws such as Prties Act in oreder to transparency and clarification and consequently restricting the authority of monitoring bodies, guaranteeing the right to association as a citizenship rights and recognition of the citizens participation in policy-making.

Keywords

• equality؛ freedom of parties
• political associations
• monitoring
• party budget