The legitimation of the clergy’s right to rule in the Iranian Constitution of 1979

Abstract

In the course of recreating a new constitution for the Islamic Republic of Iran, there were a number of crucial debates concerning legitimacy, representation, concepts of democracy, and the relations between temporal and religious power. During the discussions in the Assembly of Experts and among opposing factions in Iranian society, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's disciples managed to establish their leader's doctrine of rule by the clergy. The outcome was a virtual coup d'etat, whereby opposition factions were fatally weakened by the Islamic Republican Party (IRP), which served as a vehicle for its members to obtain power and to implement Ayatollah Khomeini's ideology. This paper describes the institutionalization of velayat-e faqzh (Guardianship of the Jurisconsult), between the establishment of the Islamic republic in February 1979 through the period when the concept became the law of the land in December 1979. The reasons for the faq-h's ascendancy to the position of absolute leadership are explained by considering a number of essential points: Khomeini's charismatic leadership and support for velayat-e faqih; his loyalists' overpowering domination during the debates, with their manipulation of the elections and their subsequent domination of the assembly debates; the serious apprehensions and miscalculations on the part of opposition groups who failed to organize and present a united front;1 and finally, the political shrewdness of the clergy, who in neutralizing the left by including some of their demands in the constitution, helped institutionalize the faqih doctrine and assure clerical dominance even after Khomeini's death. Scholars have