Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is a reformer. On the distorted spectrum of Iranian politics, the meaning of that label is less clear than it sounds, but relative to other Iranian politicians he is ready to advance relations with the West. His ability to do so is limited, however: There are powerful institutional checks on any president's power and many of those positions are held by hardliners with an instinctive revulsion of better ties with the West.
The elections held last weekend in Iran hold out the tantalizing possibility of a shift in that balance of power. Rouhani and his allies made big gains in the balloting, an outcome that both signals the readiness of the Iranian people to change course and reduces the power of the hardliners to stop that shift. Unfortunately, the structure of the Iranian government entrenches conservative rule, but last week's results hold out the tantalizing prospect of change.
Voters were selecting two sets of positions: members of the parliament and members of the Assembly of Experts, which selects the country's supreme leader. While final results will take time — nearly 60 of the 290 seats in the parliament require runoffs — the overall outcome is clear. Reformist candidates and moderate conservatives hold more than half the seats in the legislature, while conservatives won 68 seats, a substantial drop from the 112 they held in the last parliament. This is a substantial shift from the previous legislature, in which reformers held just 10 percent of the seats. While boundaries among the groups are fluid — moderate conservatives join reformers on economic issues — the reformers' position is certainly strengthened.