An analysis of the experience of the Islamic Republic in Iran is incomplete without reference to comparable historical cases in other societies. One of the closest parallels is the republic of Oliver Cromwell in seventeenth-century England—a case in which a monarchical order collapsed and was replaced by a regime grounded in religious and ideological legitimacy (the Church of England).

In 1649, after years of civil war, Charles I was overthrown and executed. This event was not merely the fall of a monarch, but a fundamental rupture in the traditional understanding of political authority and legitimacy in England. The new republic presented itself through slogans such as justice, religious reform, and popular sovereignty, claiming to construct a superior order to the one it replaced.

However, the process of political consolidation quickly moved away from institutional pathways. Power became increasingly concentrated in the hands of Oliver Cromwell. Relying on military authority and religious legitimacy, he established a form of personal rule that depended less on institutions than on the loyalty of armed forces under his command.

Over time, the state shifted from a political project to one of moral and cultural regulation. Cultural restrictions, control over lifestyle, and efforts to align society with a specific interpretation of religion reflected an attempt to reorganize the entirety of social life. In this sense, Cromwell’s republic can be regarded as one of the earliest examples of an ideological state in the modern era.

The system soon faced two structural challenges: growing........

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