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Is the Islamic Republic of Iran an ideological state, an Islamic democracy, or a classic dictatorship? The heuristic dimension of the debate regarding the nature of the Islamic Republic has to be found in a better understanding of the decision-making process inside the regime. In other words, the choice of the criteria to define the political system of the Islamic Republic affects our analysis of its political functioning. It is therefore important to shed light on the diverging political classifications of the Islamic Republic as defined by scholars specialized in Iranian studies. Finally, this paper challenges the relevancy of analyses underlining the “elective” or “republican” dimensions in the complex institutional web of an Islamic theocracy.