"Resilient Economy" or How the Government Trains People to Accept Poverty

After the protests of December 2017, discussions regarding a resilient economy re-emerged in Iran, both from military and security officials and from members of the religious bureaucracy. The officials of the Islamic Republic have downplayed the protests by reducing them to economic grievances and prescribing their old and fake remedies (through commissioned polls). Security and military officials, who cannot deny the economic dissatisfaction and the government's inefficiency, link economic problems to the policies of Rouhani's government and blame it for ignoring the resilient economy envisioned by Khamenei: "The second side of the triangle of the recent incident... is the failure to adhere to the issues of the resilient economy [which has been repeatedly emphasized by the Supreme Leader]." (Gholamreza Jalali, head of the Civil Defense Organization, February 10, 2018). Friday prayer leaders across the country also introduced adherence to the Supreme Leader's resilient economy policies as a solution to exit the "sedition of 2017" based on directives issued by the central Friday prayer headquarters in Tehran. When Khamenei and his appointed military commanders talk about a resilient economy, what do they envision? What does the resilient economy mean to the rulers of the Islamic Republic, and what does it not mean? Can the resilient economy they envision respond to the demands of the people? I will explain the concept of a resilient economy from Khamenei's perspective and his loyalists in five aspects. Habitualizing People to Poverty The resilient economy lacks an economic policy aspect. If it were merely an economic policy, we would have left it to economists. The discussion of the resilient economy is part of the government's social and cultural engineering. The most important aspect of the resilient economy is its "livelihood engineering" aspect, which means mentally conditioning people to accept poverty by constantly mentioning the conspiracies of enemies and sanctions and that "they won't let us." The problem the government has with most people is that they have not acclimated to the standard of living defined by the government (bare minimum food, housing as mere shelter or shanties, or cans as Hassan Rouhani put it, and needing food supplies to the extent of attending religious ceremonies funded by municipal and government budgets). Khamenei expects the government to create the conditions for this acclimatization through various programs. He defines the resilient economy as follows: "A resilient economy is one that can determine the growth and prosperity of the country under pressure, sanctions, and severe enmities." (August 7, 2012). Under sanctions, people must be content with less so that the livelihood of the rulers continues to flourish, and their wealth and income grow, providing for the costs of the repression apparatus and foreign intervention. Khamenei expects that by implementing resilient economy policies, ordinary people will consume less: "The issue of consumption management is one of the pillars of a resilient economy; that is, balanced consumption and avoiding waste and extravagance. Both state and non-state institutions, as well as individuals and families, must pay attention to this issue; this is truly a jihad. Today, avoiding extravagance and maintaining balance in consumption is undoubtedly a jihad against the enemy; one can claim that this has the reward of jihad in the way of God." (July 25, 2012). However, in practice, the government and the state, which have all public resources at their disposal and consume and spend excessively, have taken no action to reduce waste and extravagance. The result is that ordinary people must bear more pressure. Lowering Expectations The main problem for the government is the expectations of the people. Officials want people to close their eyes to the living standards of other nations (not Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland, but Turkey and the UAE) and be content with whatever the government defines for them. The problem for military and security officials is that people's expectations have risen after 100 to 150 billion dollars of the country's income were deposited into the treasury following the JCPOA: "The JCPOA has caused an increase in people's expectations in society." (Representative of the Supreme Leader in the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, Tasnim, September 15, 2016). Accepting Privileges of the Ruling Class Under pressure and sanctions, not a single privilege of the ruling class has decreased; embezzlements have not lessened, foreign trips have not reduced, and the allocation of state facilities at low prices and with low-interest loans to insiders has not stopped, and less oil dollars have been given to religious institutions. However, after the JCPOA, no new actions were taken to improve the quality of nutrition, health, housing, education, and public transportation. Over four decades, the privileges of the ruling class have never been diminished. Thus, the resilient economy effectively means that the people should consider the privileges of the ruling class (all from public resources) as a divine and eternal gift and not raise their voices. Economic Isolation All those who have defended the term resilient economy have warned against normalizing economic relations with the outside world. They oppose integrating the country’s economy into the global market and allowing public participation without government permission. The resilient economy is proposed by someone whose institutions benefit from imports and exports with the world. Free trade is bad if its benefits do not go into the pockets of the religious and military bureaucracy. While Khamenei emphasizes domestic production as one of the components of the resilient economy, all state institutions benefit from imports and exports. In what resilient economy are Apple phones imported to the Social Security Organization and luxury cars to the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee? The Axis of Resistance Understanding the resilient economy is impossible without considering the regional strategy of the Islamic Republic, which is managing the "Axis of Resistance" and "cultural resistance" (against Western civilization). The resilient economy means that the livelihood system in the country must be structured in such a way that, firstly, under any sanctions due to the government’s terrorist programs and the production and use of weapons of mass destruction, it can continue its existence without popular protests, and secondly, it can easily spend tens of billions of dollars on regional wars. What Resilient Economy Is Not? From Khamenei's perspective, the resilient economy is "knowledge and technology-based, justice-based, endogenous and exogenous, dynamic and progressive." (Khamenei's directive to the heads of the three branches of government and the Expediency Council regarding resilient economy policies, February 18, 2014). None of these features align with Khamenei's ideological foundations and decision-making. Knowledge and technology have played no role in the country's policymaking for four decades (commitment takes precedence over expertise). The privileges and corruption of the ruling class contradict the justice-based nature of Iran's economy. The endogenous nature of the resilient economy conflicts with the concentration of wealth in institutions under the leader's supervision and the religious and military bureaucracy's access to these resources, while its exogenous nature is achieved through the preservation and continuation of oil sales. The dynamic and progressive nature is merely slogans to attract the audience's attention and has no external counterpart. Monopoly, privilege, and discrimination are neither dynamic nor progressive. The Government's Waste and Plunder Khamenei has mentioned the transparency of the economy in section 19 of the resilient economy policies, yet the economic institutions under his and the IRGC's supervision do not even present a single page of balance sheets of their inputs and outputs annually. Section 23 refers to the transparency and streamlining of the distribution and pricing system and updating the methods of market supervision, but the two economic and financial empires under the leader and the IRGC operate completely opaquely. Section 16 concerns savings, while the waste of resources and allocation of resources to religious and propaganda institutions without any productivity and job creation are among the most significant aspects of the failure to save public resources. Section 9 is about the comprehensive reform and strengthening of the country's financial system, but the leadership and the IRGC themselves have interfered in banking activities and have been plundering the resources of state banks without accountability and oversight. Section 1 emphasizes providing conditions and activating all financial resources and human and scientific capital of the country, but the ideological selection system and granting scholarships for higher education to relatives and insiders and filling universities with Basijis and clerics who today all hold the title of doctor contradicts the provision of such conditions. Empty or Attached Promises? Contrary to the views of some critics who consider this term devoid of meaning and contradictory, the concept of a resilient economy has specific meanings and requirements. The resilient economy is not an empty promise: 1) a promise of poverty and misery for the majority of Iranian society, 2) the continuation of rent and privileges for the ruling class and the religious bureaucracy and the IRGC, and 3) guaranteeing the provision of resources for foreign interventions and the regime's weapons of mass destruction programs. Concepts like "resistance" and "enemy" are created to foster an environment in which officials are not held accountable for their actions and decisions. For this reason, the resilient economy policies that have been implemented during Rouhani's government not only do not respond to public demands in the livelihood area but also ignore these demands.