Chapter 2 examines the Islamic Republic’s first five presidential elections, which were held in the revolution’s first decade. These elections brought to power Abolhassan Banisadr (1980), Mohammad-Ali Rajai (1981), Ali Khamenei (1981 and 1985) and Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989). This chapter highlights how presidential elections in this milieu were highly influenced by Khomeini’s religious revolutionary ethos, as reflected in the chapter’s title: ‘The Age of the Imam’. This ethos was pervasive and far from a distinguishing feature of the triumphant Islamic Republican Party (IRP). It was a characteristic of the age and its zeitgeist. Undoubtedly, there were disagreements, but these were framed and expressed in the context of revolutionary religiosity. Although the fifth election was held after the death of Khomeini in July 1989, it is included in this chapter as it was also guided by Khomeini's revolutionary principles. This chapter, and its focus on Khomeini’s religious revolutionary ethos, frames the ensuing transformation of electoral discourses and imaginaries in the post-Khomeini era.

As revealed by its title, Chapter 9 “Jihadi Culture and Management (2005–2017)” examines the cultural production surrounding the nostalgic, romanticized, and ambiguous concept of “jihadi culture and management” (farhang va mudīriyat-i jahādī), which has increasingly appeared in the discourse and activities of politicians, officials, bureaucrats, and activists. The concept did not simply emerge from RJ, but a deliberately constructed and carefully crafted image and narrative of it as an ideal-type revolutionary organization and its members as archetypal jihadists (jahādgarān). Former RJ members in the bureaucracy and society have promoted the concept in an effort to infuse the state and society with the exemplary attributes, norms, values, structures, and practices that RJ had allegedly possessed as a revolutionary organization. To the dismay of some former RJ members, the IRI’s factionalized elites have appropriated the concept in an attempt to mobilize and socialize voters and supporters during local and national elections.