Democrat Party (Persia)

For the party active during the 1940s, see Democrat Party of Iran.

The Democrat Party (Persian: فرقه دموکرات) was a social democratic political party in Qajari Persia, during the constitutional period. It was one of two major parliamentary parties at the time, along with the Moderate Socialists Party.^[2] It was largely composed of middle-class intellectuals and stood for the separation of church and state.^[3]

Democrat Party
Leader	Soleiman Eskandari[1]
Parliamentary leader	Hassan Taqizadeh[2]
Executive secretary	Haydar Khan Amo-oghli[3]
Founded	1909
Dissolved	1919 or 1921[4]
Preceded by	Social Democratic Party
Headquarters	Tehran, Persia[2]
Newspaper	Iran-e No[2] Nobahar[2] Iran[2] Zaban-e Azad[2]
Ideology	Social democracy[3] Radicalism[3] Progressivism[3] Nationalism[2] Secularism[2] Constitutionalism[3]
Political position	Centre-left
Politics of Iran Political parties Elections

History

Initially an offshoot of the Transcaucasia-based Social Democratic Party, it severed direct ties with Baku and dropped "Social" from the name in deference to the conservative public. Its ideology, however, remained heavily borrowed from the old party.^[3]

In 1918, the party split definitively into the Pro-Reorganization Democrats (Persian: دموکرات‌های تشکیلی, romanized: Demokrāthā-ye taškīlī) led by Bahar; and the Anti-Reorganization Democrats (Persian: دموکرات‌های ضدتشکیلی, romanized: Demokrāthā-ye żedd-e taškīlī).^[2]

Parliament election results

Election	Seats				Quota[5]
	Count[5]	±	%	±
1906	21 / 156	—	13.46	—	Minority as Social Democratic Party
1909	28 / 126	7	22.22	8.76	Minority
1914	51 / 115	23	44.34	22.12	Majority party Including 20 in coalition