Capacities of Political Participation in Interpreting Velayat-e-Faqih (Supremacy of the Jurist) Theory

As the political theory of the Shia at the time of absence (Gheibah of Imam Mahdi), Velayat-e-Faqih (Supremacy of the Jurist) has seen numerous interpretations for managing the society at different times. Some of these interpretations like “Hesbah/حسبه” and “General Supremacy of the Jurists/ولایت عامّه فقیهان” are put under “non-democratic discipline” interpretation which has put the legitimacy of the government at the hand of the governor due to dominance of special framework for “power” and has considered a limited share for political participation of the public; hence, has limited capacity for attracting the political participation of the majority of citizens. Some other interpretations like “Absolute Supremacy of the Jurist/ولایت مطلقه فقیه” and “Selective Supremacy of the Jurist/ولایت انتخابی فقیه” are classified under “democratic discipline” interpretation and have high capacity to attract political participation due to seeing people present in the establishment and handling of the government and supervising the governors. In addition to explaining the legitimacy of substantiation of Velayat-e-Faqih (Supremacy of the Jurist) theory under these two interpretations and differentiating them; this study analyzes the capacity of each interpretation according to its basics and proofs and believes that: limitation and expansion of the freedoms and political participation of people and the elites is related more to capacities of the discipline (based on basics and proofs of interpreting Velayat-e-Faqih theory) than on laws of each discipline or decisions of the Jurist.