According to the Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism, the Abadgaran "seems to have been formed in 2003 and is made up broadly of figures under the age of fifty, who are non-clerics".[4] The group originally consisted of Basij and Revolutionary Guards veterans who rose to mid- and senior-level administrative positions but marginalized during government of Hashemi Rafsanjani.[7]
The group's name, reflects its focus on the issue of development to present them as a rival to the ruling reformist economic policies.[11]Fred Halliday states that the name Developers has an implicit contrast with the title of Executives of Construction, and suggests that it is closer to people and the poor than the latter group, since it conveys a sense of rural roots and values (Abadi means village in Persian).[6]Michael Axworthy believes that the name was an "awkward choice", as it sounds like it was selected because the terms for 'reforms' (Eslahat) and 'construction' (Sazandegi) were already taken.[2]
Political historian Ervand Abrahamian credits the victory of Abadgaran and other conservatives in the 2003, 2004, and 2005 elections to the conservatives' retention of their core base of 25% of the voting population, their recruiting of war veteran candidates, their wooing of independents using the issue of national security, and most of all "because large numbers of women, college students, and other members of the salaried middle class" who make up the reformists' base of support "stayed home". Turnout in the 2004 Majlis election fell below 51%, for example.[12]
^ abcdefghiAntoine, Olivier; Sfeir, Roy (2007), The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism, Columbia University Press, pp. 147–148
^ abPesaran, Evaleila (2011), Iran's Struggle for Economic Independence: Reform and Counter-Reform in the Post-Revolutionary Era, Routledge Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa, Taylor & Francis, p. 149
^ abcHalliday, Fred (2010), Shocked and Awed: How the War on Terror and Jihad Have Changed the English Language, I.B. Tauris, pp. 145–148
^Wehrey, Frederic M. (2009), Dangerous But Not Omnipotent: Exploring the Reach and Limitations of Iranian Power in the Middle East, Monograph series, vol. 781, Rand Corporation, p. 25
^Adib-Moghaddam, Arshin (2014), A Critical Introduction to Khomeini, Cambridge University Press, p. 293
^Rajaee, Farhang (2010), Islamism and Modernism: The Changing Discourse in Iran, University of Texas Press, p. 235
^Seliktar, Ofira (2012), Navigating Iran: From Carter to Obama, Springer, p. 141
^Gheissari, Ali; Nasr, Vali (2006), Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty, Oxford University Press
^Abrahamian, History of Modern Iran, (2008), p. 192
