Center for the Study of Democracy

On the eve of the 2001 presidential elections in Iran, Reza Pahlavi visited UCI and the Center to discuss the prospects for democratic reform in Iran. Pahlavi discussed the contradictions between the current clerical regime in Iran and the principles of freedom and democracy. He questioned whether the majority of the Iranian public supports the clerical-based regime. Pahlavi laid out an agenda for political reform in Iran, beginning with a guarantee of human rights, and including new economic and political exchanges with the West. Pahlavi's believes that Iran's goal should be the creation of a secular democracy.