The Possibility of Authoritarian Reading of Ayatullah Mu’min-e Qumi’s Political Jurisprudence

Comparing the jurisprudents’ theoretical and practical approaches to the political system in the two eras, i.e. the Constitutional Revolution and the Islamic Revolution has led some authors to this conclusion that in the Islamic Revolution Era, jurisprudential speculations have chiefly adopted authoritarian approach to the existing political system. In this article, the validity of the above claim concerning authoritarianism, as attributed to AyatullÁh MuÞmin Qumi, has been studied drawing upon the descriptive-analytical method. On the basis of authoritarian reading of political system, it is shown that AyatullÁh MuÞmin has made use of the fundamental concept of legal guardian, Wali-e Amr, to establish, on the basis of five arguments, the wide scope of authority a legal guardian has in establishing his political sovereignty. In this article, the arguments for the authoritarian reading of Ayatullah Mu’min’s jurisprudential political theory is evaluated and the conclusion is drawn in the end that the guardianship of the legal guardian resembles what is called in political science the mixed government which consists of the reciprocal process of top-down and button-up authority.