Analysis of the Concept of the Legitimacy of Government; A Comparative Investigation of the Viewpoints of Thomas Aquinas and Khwajah Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

Legitimacy of government and trying to approve it is one of the important issues in politics. The present paper seeks to investigate the viewpoints of two great thinkers of the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas and Khwajah Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, regarding the legitimacy of government; (Problem) an issue which has not been investigated so far. Since Aquinas was brought up in a Christian-European tradition and Khwajah Nasir al-Din al-Tusi in an Islamic-Iranian one, the present paper tries to answer this question: What are the basis and forms of the thoughts of these two thinkers regarding legitimacy of government? (Question) This term, because of conflicting conceptual interpretations in the viewpoint of different theorizers, has gained different meanings and forms, as a result, the present article is an exploratory one and there is no hypothesis presented for it. (No Hypothesis) Therefore, the purpose of this article is investigating the interpretations of these two great religious thinkers without any evaluation of their viewpoints. (Objective) Research data are collected using library documentary methods and are analyzed in the framework of comparative method. (Methodology) Despite the significant similarity in the theoretical principles of Aquinas and Khwajah, because of divine principles, these two viewpoints are in opposing poles, thus, it can be said that conceptualization of the legitimacy of government depends on the ground on which conceptualization takes place. (Finding)