Note: Hujjat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen Seyed Mohammad Hossein Motavali Emami has long been engaged in educational and research activities to provide theoretical support for the Islamic government and founded the Institute for Strategic Research on Islamic Civilization (META) for this purpose. For several years, he has been researching Islamic economics and has seriously introduced the concept of “gold-backed money” into the discourse of economic scholarship in the country. We discussed with him the nature and dimensions of people-oriented economics. He views people-oriented economics, as articulated by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution in our country, as distinct from privatization or the free market in Western economics. He considers the primary solution for achieving a people-oriented economy to be transitioning from fiat money to gold-backed money. The full text of Contemporary Jurisprudence‘s exclusive interview with this professor and researcher of Islamic economics follows:
Contemporary Jurisprudence: What does people-oriented economics mean?
Motavali Emami: People-oriented economics means placing wealth and the means of production in the hands of the people. In other words, market needs assessment and the production process should be driven by the people and free from monopolies.
Contemporary Jurisprudence: What is the conceptual difference between people-oriented economics and privatization?
Motavali Emami: Privatization, as understood in Western economics (Privatization), is distinct from people-oriented economics. In the capitalist system, privatization means placing wealth and production in the hands of a few capitalists, where the people are essentially considered consumers and subordinates of the capitalist system.
Contemporary Jurisprudence: What actions must be taken by the government and the people to achieve a people-oriented economy?
Motavali Emami: The first step toward a people-oriented economy is to break monopolies in all production sectors, allowing the market economy to be shaped by the people. The prerequisite for breaking monopolies is eliminating favoritism in all economic sectors. The initial stage in eliminating monopolies is the equitable distribution of wealth in society. The prerequisite for equitable wealth distribution is the choice of currency type and the mechanisms of money issuance. Fiat money, due to its ability to create money and provide loans through the money creation process, leads to wealth concentration in society. This phenomenon causes wealth redistribution and creates the greatest obstacle to a people-oriented economy.
Contemporary Jurisprudence: Does people-oriented economics mean supporting a free market economy and reducing the role of the government, or is it unrelated to this concept?
Motavali Emami: People-oriented economics does not mean a free market economy in the liberal sense. Rather, it involves breaking monopolies and removing the government as a market player. The government must maintain its supervisory role over the market. For a more comprehensive response to this question, I recommend reading the article “The Anti-Government Stance of the Austrian School and the Theory of Guardianship of the Jurist.”
It is worth noting: Due to the Austrian School’s liberal approach to individuals and society, it prioritizes individual autonomy and personal desires. Since government governance typically leads to legislation and numerous restrictions on individuals, an unwritten tendency of the Austrian School is anti-government sentiment. Austrian liberals resent the extensive and varied interventions of governments and lean toward a form of right-wing anarchism. Extreme liberals of the Austrian School label the government as a necessary evil, assigning it only the role of maintaining security, though in many cases, they have also identified the government as a source of instability. Granting extreme freedom to individuals and removing government influence from all societal sectors have led the political inclinations of this school to take on an idealistic and unrealistic form.
In Islamic sources, combating hoarding, favoritism, and usury are among the most critical duties of the Islamic government in the market. Conversely, price controls, wealth concentration, and discriminatory wealth distribution are prohibited zones for the Islamic government. Therefore, the political economy of the gold-backed money theory has been developed with these considerations in mind and has no connection to the Austrian School’s anti-government and anarchistic approach. The theory of Guardianship of the Jurist (Wilayat al-Faqih) is a fundamental pillar of the political economy of the gold-backed money theory.
The discourse of people-oriented money, respect for individual property rights, and the necessity of commodity-based money can be considered shared elements between the gold-backed money theory and the Austrian School. However, within the semantic framework of Guardianship of the Jurist, these elements take on a fundamentally different meaning, creating a distinct approach in economics compared to the political economy of the Austrian School.
Contemporary Jurisprudence: Is people-oriented economics compatible with various economic theories, or does it align only with specific ones?
Motavali Emami: People-oriented economics is certainly not compatible with capitalist economics, communist economics, or neoliberal economics. Its foundations must be sought in Islamic economic texts.
Contemporary Jurisprudence: Is people-oriented economics a theory specific to our country, or has it been implemented in other countries and non-Islamic economic systems? What has been the experience of these countries in this regard?
Motavali Emami: People-oriented economics, as articulated by the Supreme Leader, is a theory specific to our country, as it must be explained within the framework and semantic system of the Quran and narrations. However, seemingly similar theories exist in Western economics, where people-oriented economics is interpreted as anti-government sentiment, resulting in a form of right-wing anarchism and anti-government tendencies that lead to a free market economy.
Contemporary Jurisprudence: What are the benefits and potential harms of people-oriented economics?
Motavali Emami: People-oriented economics cannot be considered inherently harmful, as the nature and reality of the economy and market should inherently be people-driven. State-controlled economies, rent-seeking economies, and capitalist economies have disrupted the natural state of the market and caused existing harms. A people-oriented economy fosters natural and genuine production growth, equitable wealth circulation in society, support for genuine producers, and the elimination of political and economic rent-seeking.