As one of the main technocrats of Reza Shah's government, Ali Akbar Davar played an important role in advancing the project of state-building and the concentration of political power, and implemented extensive reforms in the areas of legislation, judicial organization, and administrative bureaucracy. This article, using a descriptive-analytical approach and relying on library sources and historical documents, examines Ali Akbar Davar's intellectual personality, political mentality, and position in the authoritarian state-building process of Reza Shah's era. The main issue of the research is how Davar's institutional reforms were related to political development and social participation. The hypothesis of the article is based on the fact that Davar represented a type of authoritarian and technocratic modernization that, emphasizing institutional efficiency and the concentration of power, pursued legal reforms without sufficient attention to institutionalizing political participation and ensuring civil liberties. The research findings show that Ali Akbar Davar was, on the one hand, the architect of modern legal and judicial institutions, and on the other hand, a victim of the same authoritarian state structure that he himself played a fundamental role in forming and consolidating.