Abstract
This paper aims to show that authoritarianism was elevated with the establishment of a rentier state in Iran. Despite several at-tempts to undergo democratization, the Islamic Republic of Iran was ultimately established in 1979. Although there are numer-ous possibilities of an emerging authoritarianism due to the disadvantages of a rentier state, there is an argument which refuses to consider the Iranian regime as authoritarian. According to this idea, political party activists and also the election system have prevented the rise of authoritarianism in the country. Thus, the Iranian regime can be considered a hybrid regime. In understand-ing this idea, with attention given to the theory of hybrid regimes, the present research attempts to analyze the political factors that signify authoritarianism and also democracy in the political structure of the Iranian government.