A new era of universalism and constitutional systems sets in after the fall of the Berlin Wall. With a worldwide demise of most traditional communist systems, liberal democracies seem to be the last system standing: The End of history, as Francis Fukuyama dubbed it. A lot of nations change in their old constitutional system for a new one: a liberal democracy, set in stone by a constitution that lays down individual fundamental freedom protection, division of government power, popular sovereignty and democracy. The bulk of nations has or adopts a liberal democratic constitution by the end of the twentieth century (at least they do so on paper). Communist and theocratic (Islamic) constitutions still exist but they represent a minority part of the constitutions in existence. The first part of the twenty-first century shows slide backs in the form of illiberal democracies, democratic downfalls and an increase of autocratic systems. None state (or supra state) constitutions spring up.

This chapter outlines the history of the 30 years between the Iranian Revolution of 1978‒1979 and the Green Uprisings of 2009, and contextualizes specific days of action that took place in 2009. For example, a brief history of the 1979 US embassy seizure is given to explain the political importance of the Green activists’ day of protest in 2009, when the 30th anniversary of the embassy seizure was used to denounce the Islamic government and its foreign backers. Other subjects covered in the chapter include the post-revolutionary power struggle, the Iran‒Iraq War and its conclusion, the export of the Iranian Revolution, the baby boom, the educational reforms that were designed to create the new Islamist citizen, gender politics, and the reconstruction years when Iran embarked on a period of privatization and development. The chapter explains how the radicals who were ousted from power later returned as reformists in the late 1990s, which prompted a conservative backlash in the form of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, followed in turn by a backlash against the conservatives in 2009 with the candidacy of Mir Hussein Mousavi.