Political Institutions within the Horizon of the Existential Paradigm: A Theory Based on the Ontology of the Nafs and Its Characteristics

The present study aims to develop a new theory entitled “Existential Political Institutionalism.” Drawing on the ontological paradigm of al-Ḥikmat al-Mutaʿāliya (Transcendent Philosophy), the study seeks to move beyond an instrumentalist understanding of political institutions and redefine them as structural and teleological manifestations of the actualization of human existence within the social realm. The central problem of this study is the reductionism inherent in modern political theories, which confine institutions to mere instruments for managing interests, allocating resources,
or maintaining administrative order. This study seeks to answer the question of how, by moving beyond a mechanical and technocratic perspective, one can formulate a theory of political institutions capable of incorporating qualitative dimensions, human dignity,
and the search for meaning into political structures. Adopting an analytical-interpretive approach, this study conceptually reexamines the fundamental principles of Transcendent Philosophy, including the primacy of existence (aṣālat al-wujūd) and the gradation of existence (tashkīk al-wujūd), and reconstructs these principles within the context of political science. Through comparative analysis, the proposed model is also evaluated against classical and contemporary theories of institutionalism. The findings of the study indicate that redefining institutions in terms of an existential paradigm leads to fundamental transformations in key concepts: (1) a shift from procedural legitimacy to “legitimacy based on the continuity of meaning”; (2) a redefinition of social justice, from mathematical distribution to “a balance in the recognition of human dignity”; and (3) a transformation in the nature of governance, from administrative control to “facilitating the development of social existence.” Existential political institutionalism is a trans-institutional approach that views political institutions as necessary environments for the collective actualization of human existence. By restoring the human subject to a position of centrality, this theory offers a valuable alternative to modern instrumental paradigms for addressing the crisis of alienation within contemporary political structures.