Religious Republicanism: Khomeini and Beyond (Pre-Recorded)

• In Event: Religious Knowledge, Religious Practice, and Political Authority

Abstract

Can an Islamic Republic be both Islamic and republican? This paper begins by exploring republican theories of government, in the Western tradition, that rely on religious principles, theories that find sacredness in the popular will, the recognition of individual freedoms, and devotion to a (republican) political cause. It then examines Khomeini’s notion of Islamic republican government. While Khomeini does recognize value in the popular will and the protection of individual freedoms, and grounds his embrace of these values in Islamic principles, his ideal government also entails, notoriously, participation by clerics. When clerics are involved, can government be considered republican? Moreover, is his clericalism even a necessary part of his religious republicanism in the first place; is Khomeini, in other words, as attached to the idea of clerical government as we think? More generally, beyond the Iranian context, in what way can religious sentiment or expertise be integrated into the halls of republican government without undermining or contradicting the republican nature of that government? In what way is expertise inescapable?

Author

• Nura Alia Hossainzadeh, Stanford University