Critical Recognition of Democracy in Iranian Liberal Current of Islamic Republic Era

The main aim of this article is to investigate about the Iranian liberal political current of the Islamic Republic era. Thus the main question raised here is whether the interpretation of democracy by this current can be presented as a schematic pattern or not. By applying the theoretical-methodological pattern of current-discourse, the pluralist democracy pattern was theorized from the action and theory of the current; a pattern that has been also the main notion of democracy among liberals in the era. Pluralist democracy is a kind of democracy that its pluralism has theorized transition from ideological dogmatism, from monologue speech, from obliged human era, from grand narratives and ontology, towards free experience of issues such as belief and the changing character of contemporary society. In this pattern, religion enjoying all its plurality juxtaposes other epistemic sources and loses its reference authority because it is exposed to different readings. Democracy is regarded as a meta-religious issue because it is the most humane and human right-oriented form of government, thus it is considered as equivalent to religion or even preferred to religious arguments. The study of action and theory of this political current indicated that among liberal forces of the Islamic Republic era, democracy has a prominent position, it has been theorized, and it is articulated in contrast with the new political order due to its secular ramifications.