People's Party ( fa, حزب مردم, Ḥezb-e Mardom) was a liberal

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Pahlavi era The Pahlavi dynasty ( fa, دودمان پهلوی) was the last Iranian royal dynasty, ruling for almost 54 years between 1925 and 1979. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Mazanderani soldier in modern times, who ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. It was one of two major parties in the apparent attempt to decree a

two-party system A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referre ...

Mohammad Reza Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ( fa, محمدرضا پهلوی, ; 26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980), also known as Mohammad Reza Shah (), was the last ''Shah'' (King) of the Imperial State of Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow in the Irani ...

, apparently opposition to the ruling New Iran Party and previously

Nationalists' Party Party of Nationalists or Nationalists' Party ( fa, حزب ملیون, Ḥezb-e Melliun) was a conservative political party in Pahlavi era Iran, and government majority party from 1957 to 1960. The party was founded in 1957 by Manouchehr Eghbal on ...

. The party was dissolved in 1975, in order to be merged into the newly founded

Resurgence Party The Party of Resurrection of the Iranian Nation ( fa, حزب رستاخیز ملت ایران) or simply Rastakhiz Party ( fa, حزب رستاخیز, Ḥezb-e Rastāḵiz, lit=Resurgence/Resurrection Party) was Iran's single legal political party ...

, the only legal party in the Shah's attempted

single-party system A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...

Leadership

Electoral history

Reception

The party was often criticized for its "lethargic, belated and disorganized"

election campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referend ...

s, as well as being incapable of preparing a viable alternative to the New Iran Party's platform, thus blamed for the latter's continuing domination of the political scene. American diplomat

Andrew Killgore Andrew Ivy Killgore (November 7, 1919 – December 20, 2016) was an American diplomat and a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. He was ambassador of the United States to Qatar from 1977 until his retirement from the U.S. Foreign Service in 1980. ...

, described the party "made up of

cliques A clique ( AusE, CanE, or ), in the social sciences, is a group of individuals who interact with one another and share similar interests. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popular ...

of followers of a few competing leaders who cooperate with one another for personal and pragmatic reasons but not out of any sense of party unity", what he calls a "traditional Iranian political party".

In popular culture

According to

Ervand Abrahamian Ervand Abrahamian; hy, Երուանդ Աբրահամեան (born 1940) is an Iranian-American historian of the Middle East. He is Distinguished Professor of History at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, Graduate Center of the City Un ...

, People's Party and New Iran Party were interchangeably called "Yes Sir, Party" ( fa, حزب بله‌قربان) and "Yes of Course Sir, Party" ( fa, حزب چشم‌قربان) by people, as members of the two parties in the

National Consultative Assembly The National Consultative Assembly ( fa, مجلس شورای ملی, Mad̲j̲les-e s̲h̲ūrā-ye mellī) or simply Majles, was the national legislative body of Iran from 1906 to 1979. It was elected by universal suffrage, excluding the armed for ...

were assigned to their affiliation by

Shah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...

and with the help of

SAVAK SAVAK ( fa, ساواک, abbreviation for ''Sâzemân-e Ettelâ'ât va Amniat-e Kešvar'', ) was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service in Iran during the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty. SAVAK operated from 1957 until prime ...

.Abrahamian, Ervand. (2008) ''History of Modern Iran''. Cambridge University Press.

References

1957 establishments in Iran Political parties established in 1957 1975 disestablishments in Iran Political parties disestablished in 1975 Monarchist parties in Iran Political parties in Pahlavi Iran (1941–1979) Liberal parties in Iran {{iran-party-stub