The political systems that have the most momentum moving into the 21st century are certainly the various types of democracies. However, much of the world’s population is still under the rule of totalitarianism. The former tends to encourage citizens to think, act, and work with a more personally guided mentality, while the latter tends to more forcefully require that citizens abide by principles that promote the political figures in charge, and thus the goals of the state. This social paradigm is also translated to how businesses are able to function within the context of society, and how they may gather, allocate, and grow their resources. As a result of the effects of globalization, citizens in countries where the governments are authoritarian have requested that some of the principles of free market capitalism be translated to social and cultural liberties as well. These governments have acted to maintain their hold on power, while at the same time dealing with and benefiting from the increased cross border commerce.
In the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is largely a collectivist nation with a theocratic totalitarian government, the ruling clerics have been in power for over 30 years. The mullahs have had an understanding with the intellectual and business elite of the country for decades, whereby commerce along with technological innovation could expand, while individuals and organizations could financially benefit, as long as the political system in place could remain intact. This paradigm was recently challenged during the presidential election of 2009, when the main challenger to the current president, ran on a platform of social reform and seemingly received the most votes. However, seeing their grip on control weaken, it has been widely reported that the ruling clerics illegitimately altered the vote totals in order to give the incumbent hardliner the win. This understandably led to social unrest and protesting, followed by a brutal government crackdown, where citizens were arrested, beaten, tortured and killed. Information in the form of video and images were spread throughout the world, even though both foreign and domestic journalists were banned from covering the events. Now the question remains whether or not further rifts will occur within the establishment that will lead to significant reform or even more social unrest.
As with many forms of authoritarianism, when events and activities do not align with the tastes and opinions of the ruling members, laws can readily be discarded or ignored in favor of what allows power to remain in the hands of those who already possess it. Interestingly, in other societies which promote varying degrees of collectivism, such as Sweden, a harmonious balance has been struck that allows for individualism, due in part to everyone being considered equal for the most part. Therefore, they are able to avoid such extreme political discombobulations.