Scientist,

Power corrupts, but powerlessness also corrupts. The Jewish people in
exile are not protected by lack of power from their extreme follies.

Some combination of many factors, including: frustration and anger that their candidate lost, action and adventure, encouragement from western countries and press, the opportunity to interact with members of the opposite sex openly and in public.

Wishful thinking!

If they\'re opposed to the regime, why are their slogans la ilaha illalah and allahu akbar? Why are their banners green? Sounds pretty Islamic-revolutionary to me.

Another revolution - no. Maybe an end to the revolutionary republican Islamic regime - but almost certainly not. I don\'t know of any data to suggest that most Iranians want any form of government except the kind they have now.

The shah's regime was no "dictatorship." There is a vast difference between a dictatorship and a monarchy. A monarchy is a familial ownership of government that tends to manage it with the aim to maximize their wealth in the long run by not plundering the society in the short run. Dictatorship is precisely the plunder that monarchies avoid.

I'm not of the opinion that there's one turbaned guy in Iran who makes every single decision in the country, or even every important decision. Dictatorships almost never work that way, especially dictatorships with highly developed bureaucracies and civil societies like Iran's. There are a lot of factions and interest groups competing for influence in Iran and there is a lot of influence to be exercised. The president of Iran does not have even the symbolic power and influence that the president of the United States has, but he is not some shill either.

I sympathize with the dupes who are pissed off that no one bothered to count their votes. Now they must really feel what it's like to live in a shitty country (no offense to Iran, I'm sure it's less shitty than a lot of places) and not a first world country where rigged elections are slick, professional and well-orchestrated affairs. But I propose a slightly different reason why they're all so angry: they realize now that, by voting, they were legitimizing the regime, which has always derived its claims to legitimacy from democratic principles. The real lesson they should take from this experience is that nothing good can come from voting.