Hybrid Neoliberalism: Capitalist Development in Contemporary Iran

This article contends that Iranian neoliberalisation problematises the dominant methodological tendencies that either emphasise factors operating within national borders or privilege the global institutionalisation of market-driven reforms without leaving sufficient room for the agency of domestic forces. In contrast, informed by a relational method of analysis, it argues that Iran's neoliberal restructuring was part of a response to the global crisis of overaccumulation that hit the Global South in the 1980s. Aiming to revive capital accumulation, some members of the ruling class viewed integration into the new global economy, characterised by the internationalisation of capital, as an alternative developmental strategy that would generate economic growth. While the uneven development of capitalism, the movement of international capital and the international rivalries arising out of the emergence of new centres of accumulation have drastically impacted Iranian restructuring, the struggles of an emerging internationally-oriented capital fraction and a reconfigured nationalist class force have equally shaped the process. The upshot of this has been a particular form of hybrid neoliberalism. With its sensitivity towards external and internal determinants and global and local dynamics, the paper suggests that the methodological approach of the study as an interpretive mode of enquiry could be deployed for the analysis of neoliberal restructuring anywhere.