[novok]

Timeline of Iran & Democracy:

1. Overthrew the shah in the ~1940s, created a democracy

2. Because a large majority of the economy was going to the british in the form of of the anglo persian oil company, iran nationialized it's oil industry

3. This pissed off the british, who poked it's friend america to overthrow the government in Iran. The first president said no, but the next one said yes, which eventually led to the CIA's first sponsored coup and installed the shah again.

4. This pissed off a lot of people and eventually led to the 1979 revolution and the oligarchical theocracy we have today in Iran.

Today the average young civilian in Iran doesn't really like the government.

[wendyjreichert]

You conveniently left out Soviet interference. The reason the CIA got involved was because the country was turning communist, which is the worst thing that can happen to a nation.

And yes, I would imagine that most don't like it; it's not a great place to live. This is why I said it was not really a good example of successful democracy.

[wutbrodo]

> The reason the CIA got involved was because the country was turning communist, which is the worst thing that can happen to a nation.

Was it? I'm not super well informed on the topic, but my impression was that Mossadegh's policies were largely the kind of mild social democracy that Europe has been engaging in pretty comfortably for a few decades. The two big exceptions would be nationalizing natural resources under foreign influence and raising land taxes, and again, you could probably find plenty of moderate to conservative economists today that would find both of those reasonable.

Is there anything in particular you're thinking of when you say Iran was "turning Communist" in a way that warrants comparisons to "the worst thing that can happen to a nation"?