The political structure, as the determinant of property rights and the maintainer of order, plays a crucial role in a country's development. However, this structure faces numerous obstacles in effectively reforming property rights. Political parties, through their unique functions, can help overcome these barriers. Stronger parties—provided they embrace development-oriented ideologies—are likely to be more effective in this regard .Nevertheless, political parties are products of the socio-economic transformations of the Western world, and embedding them into the political structures of developing countries—such as Iran—does not necessarily yield similar outcomes. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of party strength on economic growth rates in countries with per capita output levels comparable to Iran, making the findings to the Iranian context. The model used is a dynamic panel model estimated using the System Generalized Method of Moments. The dataset covers the years 1990 to 2023. The results reveal a positive and statistically significant relationship between party strength and economic growth rates in the selected countries over the past three decades. A comparison between Iran and the selected countries shows that Iran ranks low on the party strength index. Furthermore, an analysis of the components of this index in Iran indicates that most active political groups lack long-term vision, coherent ideological framework, organizational complexity and stable links wtih society—factors that could diminish their capacity to confront obstacles to growth within the political structure.