| Democrat Party of Iran | |
| Leader: | Ahmad Qavam |
| Leader1 Title: | Youth wing chairman |
| Leader1 Name: | Hassan Arsanjani |
| General Secretary: | Ahmad Aramesh |
| Founded: | [1] |
| Dissolved: | 1948 |
| Wing1 Title: | Workers wing |
| Wing1: | Central Syndicate of Iranian Craftsmen,Farmers, and Workers[2] |
| Ideology: | Nationalism Reformism |
| Country: | Iran |
Iranian Democrat Party or Democrat Party of Iran (DPI; Persian: حزب دموکرات ایران|Ḥezb-e Demowkrāt-e Irān) was a short-lived political party in Iran, founded in 1946 and led by Ahmad Qavam. It was the most important party formed by the old Qajar nobility,[3] and an association of aristocrats and anti-British radical intellectuals.[4] With the fall of Qavam, it disintegrated in 1948.[5]
The organization tried to give itself the appearance of being the heir of the old Democrat party[6] and was ironically named "Democrat Party of Iran" in contrast to the communist "Democrat Party of Azerbaijan".[7]
The party's ideology was to be nationalist and reformist,[1] but it was organizationally fragile as it was ideologically amorphous.[8] It called for extensive economic, social, and administrative reforms while advocating a revision of the Iranian Armed Forces.[6] It developed an authoritarianist structure[9] and some suspect it planned to create one-party state.[6]
According to Ervand Abrahamian, Qavam had two paradoxical reasons to establish the party, a "double-edged sword directed at the left as well as the right".He intended to defeat royalist and pro-British candidates in the 1947 Iranian legislative election and to use it to "mobilize non-communist reformers, steal the thunder from the left, and hence build a counterbalance to the Tudeh Party".[6]