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264 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 11 / 2018 Figure 6: one of the multiple power plants in the district of Ahvaz, less than a hundred miles north to the Persian Gulf classification appear to be «Tin-pots» and «Timocracies»61), unlike the Iranian regime. Similarly, the abundance of natural resources is more likely to be a sufficient condition for the repression (if at all), rather than a necessary one, as the Chinese or the Belarusian regimes might prove. The budgetary leak: the survival of Shi’ism While other countries experiencing a similar «black gold fever» have fueled a megalomaniac cult of their leaders, as it is the case in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, Iran has turned the religious struggle into the great hoarder of its funds. And within the liberal middle class, this serves well as an explanation for the illogical economic situation62 of a country that holds the 2nd world’s largest gas reserves and the 4th in terms of crude oil63. 61  WINTROBE, Ronald. «Dictatorship: Analytical Approaches», in Boix, Charles y Stokes, Susan (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 364. 62  Within the economic sector, there is an analogous belief concerning the state-run religious charities known as Bonyads. Holding a 20 % share of the GNP, they were originally meant to distribute oil and gas revenues among the poorest, but are constantly under accusation of corruption and nepotism. 63  U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION. Iran’s Key Energy Statistics, Washington: US Department of Energy, 2016. Available at https://www.eia.gov/beta/international/ country.cfm?iso=IRN http://revista.ieee.es

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