The Association of Combatant Clerics was founded in 1987 after abolition of the Islamic Republican Party, the last political party of that time. The association was originally radical, populist,Brumberg, Daniel, Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle for Reform in Iran, University of Chicago Press, 2001, p.162 rather than reformist in orientation, and favored a focus "on exporting the revolution and calling for the state's monopoly over the economy,"Mneisi, Ahmad. At the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. rather than democracy and freedom of expression. As of 2007, it advocated limits on clerical power in Iranian politics and extending individual freedoms—though not to the extent that might "lead to secularism or liberalism."[Wright, Robin, Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East, Penguin Press, 2008, p.300]
