Investigating Interaction Rules of Idealism and Realism in the Political Jurisprudence of the Leaders of the Revolution

A theoretical challenge in policy making is whether one should adhere to ethical rules and ideals or consider the status quo and stick to national interests while adopting a strategy. The current research is a reflective study in the light of theoretical approaches of idealism and realism which investigates the interaction rules of these two concepts in the views of political thoughts of Imam Khomeini and Imam Khamenei in the political system of Iran. Employing an analytical-descriptive method and collecting data through documentary research, the current study attempts to answer this question that what are the theoretical rules of binding idealism and realism in the political thoughts of the Imams of the revolution. The result indicates that in the discourse of Islamic revolution and the thought system of the leaders of the revolution, components of idealism and realism are organized on the bases of Shiite rules of jurisprudence including Ejtehad (religious authority), reason, advisability (interest), occasion and context which become manifest by applying binary concepts such as ideal-real, advisability-reality and rationality-conservativeness. It can be concluded that the political discourse of Islamic revolution and consequently, the political jurisprudence of Imam Khomeini and Imam Khamenei is neither mere idealism nor mere realism but a blending of both which is realist idealism in intra-national policy decision making.