Le pouvoir politique et les statistiques de population en Iran moderne

The first law providing for a systematic census of the population was ratified in 1939 under the Pahlavi monarchy. Yet, in keeping with the latter’s absolutist and authoritarian style of exercising power, limited objectives were adopted for the production and use of statistics. Above all, the Pahlavi sought to control and dominate the population. The February 1979 revolution decisively broke with this limited conception, among other things. Under the revolutionary impetus, the new regime had to give itself an entirely different ambition in the production and use of statistics. With the general census of the population that it carried out, the Islamic Republic sought to obtain a uniform description of society and offer the latter the means for knowing and conceiving of itself. However, this statistical state of grace ran out of steam. Since 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has resumed the absolutist and authoritarian logic of the Pahlavi monarchy. ■

Political science · Islamic Studies and History