Research of the Islamic Revolution

Research of the Islamic Revolution

Rereading the position of popular acceptance in the legitimacy of the Islamic government from the perspective of the Imams of the Islamic Revolution

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
عارف بشیری 1
Mohammad Hussein Soltaninejad 2
Hashem heleyel 2
Hasan Abedini 2
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Jurisprudence and Fundamentals of Islamic Law, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
2 Judicial intern and master's student at the University of Judicial Sciences and Administrative Services, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/rir.2025.514944.1105
Abstract
The role of popular acceptance in legitimizing the Islamic government is a fundamental and important issue in the literature of this field, which has always been a subject of debate and disagreement. The importance of this issue lies in its impact on the legitimacy of the political system, as the lack of popular acceptance can lead to the weakening or illegitimacy of the Islamic government. This article uses a descriptive-analytical method to answer the main question of what place popular acceptance has next to divine legitimacy. In order to analyze the issue, this article, in addition to the conceptualization of the Islamic state and the components of popular acceptance, has analyzed different perspectives on the legitimacy of the Islamic state - including the theories of appointment, election, and consolidation. Next, the position of popular acceptance in the legitimacy of the Islamic government in the thoughts of Imam Khomeini (RA) and Ayatollah Khamenei is examined. The research findings show that the views of these two figures are more consistent with the theory of integration in the form of "divine proof and popular proof" than other theories.
Keywords
Islamic government
popular acceptance
democracy
Imam Khomeini
Ayatollah Khamenei
Subjects