THE IMPACT OF UNITED STATES ECONOMIC SANCTIONS TO THE VOTING BEHAVIOR OF IRANIAN PEOPLE IN IRAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (2010-2013)

Abstract

Among the discussion about the efficiency of economic sanctions as a foreign policy, this thesis will try to give political analysis on the usability of economic sanctions to achieve expected goals. By the purpose of analyzing the relevance of economic sanctions with a political leadership transition in the receiver country, this thesis could give an understanding on how we see the concept of economic sanctions implementation on a country could give impacts not only to economical aspect, but also to the political aspect. Are economic sanctions a viable strategy in this globalizations era especially in regards to influencing domestic political aspect of the target country? The author uses study case of Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (CISADA) imposition on Iran (2010-2013). This thesis will analyze the impacts of the economic sanctions as independent variable into the Iran presidential election in 2013 as the dependent variable. The results show that the surprising victory of Hassan Rouhani was the impacts of CISADA 2010 toward Iran Presidential Elections 201. The author believes that the CISADA could affect the outcome of Iranian presidential election 2013 by casting great audience cost to Iranian people which then could influence the Iranian constituents to behave as expectation of United States.