Tyranny

The main concern of this article is to explain political thought of Mohammad Ismail Mahallati within a conceptual and methodological approach and the application of the theory of constitutional government in the analysis of the interaction between religion and government. The main question of this article is how Mahallati finds the crisis of the political order in the Qajar period and what ideal prescription does he offer to get out of it? In this regard, the author by descriptive-analytical method, uses the theoretical framework of Thomas Spragens in the book “Understanding Political Theory “to explain the hypothesis of the article. The crisis of tyranny arising from the disregard for the necessities of the Shari'a forms the main hypothesis of the text, and in such historical circumstances the political thought of Mahallati has matured. Mahallati believes the ideal model is Imams government, so, due to a realistic view in the absence of Imams, the solution in anti-authoritarianism in building power is reforming the government based on reducing the authoritarian rule and establishing a constitutional government.

The current research examines Stephen Greenblatt’s theories on the improvisation of power as well as tyranny in William Shakespeare’s second tetralogy to investigate the complex network of non-violent psychological domination of human being’s mind, by the manipulation of symbolic order through the stages of displacement and absorption. It examines how the Western psychic mobility and its embodiment in empathy and the improvisation of power affect the represented English society in the Medieval era and how the consequential power relationships impact on the ways of ruling the country. The improvisation of power deconstructs the vertical and hierarchical power relations and makes them more diagonal, horizontal or even upward. The represented Medieval English court is a dark labyrinth of conspiracy, intrigue, treason, and complicity. This duality roots in religious fundamentalism of Roman Catholic church. The tension between the two paradigms of court and church causes turbulence and chaos. The result is the absolute submission of the majority through the improvisation of power, which paves the ground for the Machiavellian minority to exert power and gratify their personal self-interest-driven plans, which are mostly tyrannical. Through the improvisation of power, the course of history could change.