Abstract: This book argues that the politics of social policy and welfare organizations provides a lens through which to understand the surprising dynamics of social and political change in Iran since the 1979 revolution.This research project emerged from a simple observation.The Iran I experienced in person looked very diff erent from the Iran I read about in journalism and scholarship.Given the dearth of secondary research on social policy in Iran, studying the postrevolutionary welfare state required a goose chase.But most fi eldwork usually does, so here I wish to thank those who made the project intellectually and logistically possible.An international dissertation fellowship from the Social Science