The current Iranian system of governance is an autocracy where the supreme leader exercises absolute, divinely ordained power, representing a departure from previous regimes.

“since that time, we've really, unfortunately, I regret to say, have been slipping and sliding into this far more autocratic revolutionary uh Islamic system, which you know, I've written in places has really returned the country, I'm sorry to say, to a sort of autocracy that the 19th century would ha”