Human as the Nodal Point in Moderation Discourse: An Analysis of the Governance of Imam ALI

This article tries to articulate ‘Moderation Discourse’ based upon post-structuralism approach and discourse analysis (DA), Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory and Van Dijk’s model. To this end, first, we sketch out and discuss the theoretical and methodological principles of the study of discourse and discourse analysis and we do our utmost effort to show how a notion can take a vast array of meanings, changing into a structured totality, we call discourse. Then, we present a picture of the main political discourses shaping Iranian identity since the Islamic Revolution reaching Moderation Discourse. To fix the meaning of Moderation Discourse, we analyzed Imam Ali’s ideas and teachings relating to the governance of justice and stretch out a net of floating and empty signifiers around a certain nodal point. Then, a unified system of meaning different from other discourses is created. Chain of equivalence and horizontal differences are constituted to determine conceptual in-groups and out-groups. Attempts are made to transform elements into moments by reducing their polysemy to a partially fixed meaning. We adopted certain defined practices of attraction and exclusion in the form of contingent and permanent considerations. So to understand what Moderation Discourse is, we fully delimit and define its meanings, and to establish and embody it as a totality and a role model of governance, details and principles of Hazrat Ali’s formula for good governance is added.