Imam Khomeini’s method of leadership and Weber’s control

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Academy of Islamic Thought and Culture

Abstract

An important aspect of Imam Khomeini’s method of government
is the type of his control and authority. Most sociologists and
political science researchersuse Max Weber’s sociological model to
analyze the subject. According to the model, political control or
authority is divided into the three type of traditional, legal-rational,
and charismatic. Many researchershave assumed Imam Khomeini’s
political authority to be of the charismatic control type. The main
concern of this paper is the criticism and evaluation of this
conception of Imam Khomeini’s method of government. Having
accepted Weber’smodel, the writerof this paper follows up the issue
with respect to two problems. Firstly, assuming that such a
conception is correct, why was the process of naturalization and
routinalization of charismatic control in Iran after Imam Khomeini
so slow? Secondly, assuming that such a conception is incorrect,the
fact is that Imam Khomeini, beingaware of his intrinsiccapabilities
and his influence on the Iranian people, did not attempt to base his
method of government on charismatic control. This basic point is
our reason why the process of routinalization in Iran was very slow.

Keywords