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254 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 11 / 2018 It is also desirable, in favor of the stability, to count with a sufficiently charismatic leader which need not be a brilliant administrator of the state, but may nonetheless serve as a ‘peace agreement between the parties’. A pact enforced among the elites under threat of severe retaliation eventually carried out by the regime’s secret services16. This abusive personalization of power often derives into the idealization of a celebrity allegedly granted with some sort of mystic powers. Under these circumstances, popular Islamic revolts are easily triggered in a 5-step process: 1. Islamic groups which gain popularity through demands of social justice are violently suppressed for the purpose of deterring any political opposition. 2. The political oppression is then extended to the socio-cultural domain. 3. An increasing number of people who find shelter in the Islamic traditions are deprived and left without representation. 4. Their initial pluralist aspirations turn into conservative reactionary views. 5. The political demands for Islamic democracy turn into totalitarian impositions motivated by the emotional context, developing into a full-scale revolution. THE LOGIC OF THE REVOLUTION: «THE DIVINE RIGHT» Throughout history, any administration ruling by undemocratic means and lacking a coherent ethical doctrine is left with the sole resource of military repression when it comes to face a large social movement. More often than not, they end up succumbing with astonishing ease as it happened in Iran under the Pahlavi Dynasty, or Tunisia and Egypt in more recent times. Therefore, authoritarian executives seek to establish a supreme moral order to legitimate their domination, let this be «ethnocratization» as in Turkmenistan, or religion as in Iran. To this respect, the governing by ‘divine right17’ emerges based on an apparent religious mandate that justifies and promotes the leadership of a small group of citizens «premised on unique abilities, attainments or virtues»18. On these premises, citizens are bound to believe that the labor separation between them and the divinely elected governors must be respected, and thus remain excluded from any real political participation. 16  The SAVAK, in times of the Shah. 17  The materialization of this ancient political concept (similar to Plato’s philosopher kings) was introduced in Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini as the velayat-e faqih. Through this medium, the traditional Shia reluctance to any human form of government was navigated, advocating for the need of a religious leader until the disclosure of the Twelfth Imam. 18  MEDEARIS, John. Major conservative and libertarian Thinkers: Joseph A. Schumpeter, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013, p. 69. http://revista.ieee.es

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