Arguably, the most distinguishing facet of Iran's post-revolutionary regime has been theplethora of institutions and competing power centers. The myriad religious and revolutionarybodies are constitutionally empowered to subdue and duplicate the functions of the centralgovernment and the republican institutions. This structural enigma is exacerbated by the existenceof political factions dispersed throughout the Iranian polity. Although they maintain theirallegiance to the tenets of the Islamic Revolution and the ideological legacy of Ayatollah RuhallahKhomeini, factions provide divergent renditions on policies in different realms. For this reason,political outcomes in the Islamic Republic of Iran depend largely on the faction that controls therelevant organization or ministry.