Institutional Poverty and Protests in Iran: A Look at Anton Jäger’s Book Hyperpolitics

The book Hyperpolitics, written by Anton Jäger, a Belgian historian and political theorist, was published in English in 2023. In this work, Jäger examines the transformations of political culture around the world and the decline of traditional mass parties and mass organizations in the post–Cold War era. He seeks to answer a central question: why, despite the dramatic increase in waves of protest, the growing prominence of popular participation on social media, and the increasing politicization of everyday life, does so much of this political energy fail to translate into lasting structural change or the consolidation of durable forms of political power? Jäger’s theoretical framework provides a valuable conceptual tool for analyzing the dynamics and underlying causes of political and protest movements in Iran, from the July 1999 protests to January 2026. In this article, which I have written in Persian, I examine the relationship between Jäger’s theory and political protests in Iran.