OICC Press International Journal of Political Science 2228-6217 13 4 2025 08 15 A comparative study of the political, analytical and operational capacity of fundamentalist and reformist political currents (2001-2021) 149 169 EN Mehdi Shirazian Department of Political Science, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Reza Akbari Nouri Department of Political Science, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Seyed Mohsen Alavipour Associate Professor of Political Science, IHCS, Tehran, Iran Journal Article 2025 08 15 The examination of the political, analytical, and operational capacity of Iran's political movements at the individual, organizational, and systemic levels forms the theoretical foundation of this re-search. The relationship between the different levels of each of these capacities is also of great sig-nificance. The present study, with a foundational research approach, provides a conceptual frame-work for analyzing and explaining political, analytical, and operational capacities. Here, political capacity refers to qualifications, abilities, and capabilities. Analytical capacity addresses technical, scientific knowledge and analytical techniques at different levels, and finally, operational capacity emphasizes the ability to execute policies and the coordination between them. Accordingly, politi-cal, analytical, and operational capacities at individual, organizational, and systemic levels form a 9-base model in which the relationships between them are taken into account. Political movement analysis is, in fact, the identification of ideological waves inspired by political schools of thought, which have become the source of political opinion and action, creating movement and change in society. However, this is not merely an intellectual study but a sociological analysis. The research findings show that the challenge facing the Principlists movement, due to its adherence to ideologi-cal principles, lies in its analytical capacity at the individual, organizational, and systemic levels, which has affected all of its capacities. However, reformist movements, despite having a high ana-lytical capacity, are unsuccessful in their political and operational performance due to a lack of control over the main centers of power at various levels.