Word: savak
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Dates: during 1967-1967
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...Shah's attempts at political reform have been less thorough. He reopened Parliament in 1963, but uses it mostly for window dressing. All candidates must be approved by SAVAK, his powerful security police, and elections are so arranged as to give the Shah's Iran Novin (New Iran) Party an overwhelming majority of the seats. The Shah, in fact, makes little pretense of being a democrat. "For 2,500 years," he says, "we have had a monarchical system, which implies a certain amount of imposed authority." His word is law, and he keeps his Prime Minister, Amirabass Hoveida...