Reexamination of the Contemporary Legal Opinions on Political Legitimacy

Document Type : Research Article

Author

• Muḥammad Taqī Fakhla‘ī

ferdowsi

10.22067/jfiqh.2020.61051.0

Abstract

Political legitimacy and its origination is one of the issues which have been subject to increasing legal debates and critical reviews more than ever in post-revolution and Islamic Republic period. While in contemporary political philosophy of the west such topics as republic and democracy have received more attention than ever before and the notions of acceptability and legitimacy have been thoroughly interrelated, the researchers were preoccupied by the question whether there has been any relation between these two topics in the model of the political system originated from the Imāmī (Twelver) jurisprudence. Would it be possible to allow a share for man’s will in the origination of legitimacy, despite belief in the divinely political system and the acceptance of God’s legislative role in it? Would it be possible to reconcile between the legality and popularity of the political system or each one would necessarily negate the other? The present paper tries to legally examine the issue of legitimacy in view of Imāmī jurisprudence separately in two historical periods of “presence” and “occultation”; to introduce the most important viewpoints in this respect; to critically analyze their proofs and their various aspects; and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each of these viewpoints. It further tries to present in a well-reasoned and scholarly manner a selected view based on the acceptance of the legal-expediential authority of the jurists and the legal conditionality of people’s opinions and demands in the origination of legitimacy, taking a step toward finding a solution for one of the most widely debated issues raised in the realm of contemporary political jurisprudence.

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