section_path: National variants/Asia/Iran
section_name: Iran
paragraph_text: Iran
  
  The Pahlavi dynasty replaced the Qajar dynasty in 1925 after a coup d'état, ruling Iran as a constitutional monarchy from 1925 until 1953 and then as an autocratic monarchy from the U.S.-instigated 1953 coup d'état until 1979. In an attempt to introduce reform from above while preserving traditional relations of hierarchy, the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, launched the White Revolution in 1963 as a series of reforms of aggressive modernisation, resulting in a great redistribution of wealth from the aristocratic landlord class to Iran's working class and explosive economic growth in subsequent decades. The Iranian Revolution of 1979, supported by the clergy and the aristocracy, overthrew the monarchy and transformed the Imperial State of Iran to the Islamic Republic of Iran, thus replacing the progressive conservatism of the Shah monarchy with the reactionary conservatism of Islamic theocracy. The two main political camps in today's Iran are the Principlists and the Reformists.