Drawing on Laclau's concept of populist discourse and Gramsci's 'national-popular collective will', and using the case of Iran, this article puts forward the idea of legacy of subalternity in the context of post-revolution governments. The concept of 'national-popular collective will' facilitates an understanding of how the popular subject is constructed and the meanings embedded in that process. It is argued that Islamic Republic elites articulate a populist discourse that constructs the 'self' (the Islamic Republic) as synonymous with 'the people'. Embedded in this discursive construction is a legacy of subalternity that goes back to the 1979 Revolution's populist discourse.

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This article contends that the international is integral to populism. Thus, it calls for populism scholarship to embrace the interconnectivity between the domestic/internal and international/external. By borrowing from Global Historical Sociology, Global International Relations and Ernesto Laclau’s notion of populist discourse, the article puts forward a new conceptual framework for the study of populism that bridges the gap between Comparative Politics and International Relations. It shows how populist discourse simultaneously constructs several aspects of the social world: the actor who is articulating it and its relationship with its own population, that actor’s relationship with others in the international system, and global order. To illustrate its case, it examines populist discourses of Islamic Republic of Iran elites. Their discourses articulate the need to maintain the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy and populist credentials inside and outside Iran, delegitimise Israel, and construct global order. These discourses are grounded in a historical trajectory: the 1979 Revolution.

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Islam and nationalism are often linked in Iranian political discourses. While looking at Islam is crucial to an understanding of Iranian nationalism, it is essential to highlight that it is not the only basis of nationalism. The political discourses during Seyyed Mohammad Khatami's presidency (1997–2005) illustrate the complexity of nationalism in Iran. This paper examines discourses of national identity that are contested by addressing the role of culture. The aim of this paper is to illustrate that the basis of the contestation is a perceived dichotomy between two cultures: Iraniyyat ‐ being Iranian in terms of Iran's pre‐Islamic heritage and exclusion of the Islamic heritage — and Islamiyyat— being Islamic in terms of Iran's Islamic heritage and exclusion of pre‐Islamic heritage.