Note: Popularizing the economy, which a few years ago was expressed by the Supreme Leader as the country’s economic strategy, has not yet been properly and precisely explained. Many consider popularizing the economy to mean maximally delegating affairs to the people and consequently reducing the government’s role in economic decisions. Dr. Mohammad Javad Tavakoli, however, believes the opposite: popularization not only does not entail such a requirement but even necessitates increasing the government’s role—as representatives of the nation—in economic decisions. He considers Islamic foundations and presuppositions important in the meaning of popularization. The detailed oral and exclusive note of this faculty member of the Economics Department at the Imam Khomeini Institute, regarding the foundations and presuppositions of popularizing the economy, passes before your eyes:
Popularizing the economy is an ambiguous concept. When we say popularizing the economy, what do we place the people against? One interpretation that can be derived from Islamic economics is to consider a popular economy opposite a multiplicative economy where the economy is in the hands of a few individuals.
Another interpretation is to say that a popular economy is opposite a state economy; meaning that people are stakeholders in the economy, have a share in it, and participate in it, rather than it being merely in the hands of a so-called wealthy and monopolistic group. The noble verse “Whatever Allah has restored to His Messenger from the people of the towns, it is for Allah and for the Messenger, and for the relatives and the orphans and the needy and the traveler, so that it may not circulate exclusively between the wealthy among you. And whatever the Messenger gives you, take it, and whatever he forbids you from, abstain from it. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is severe in retribution” points to this matter.
In jurisprudential discussion, we have several sections regarding the popularization of the economy:
One section concerns people’s ownership of natural wealth, which becomes distributive justice. Another section is intervention and people’s participation, which is raised in the public sector of the economy and means economic governance. When we speak of popular governance, it means that the legal representative of the people, which is the government or the jurist-guardian, holds the authority over the economy.
In discussing popular economic participation, we must also specify its relation to concepts like democracy. The economic popularization we propose means people’s participation under the guardianship of the jurist; that is, a kind of guardianship governance where there is no anarchy and lawfulness finds meaning under the guardianship of the jurist.
Given the above, in the field of popularizing the economy, two points must be discussed: one is the issue of property ownership, and the other is the extent of the legislator’s intervention and permission for people’s participation in the economy.
Regarding property ownership, three types are mentioned in the constitution: state ownership, private ownership, and public ownership.
But regarding legislation, it seems that the intent of popularizing the economy is not that people themselves be the legislators; rather, it is natural that since all people cannot intervene in governance, they must delegate this to their representatives. On the other hand, verses and narrations state that governance belongs to God, God’s Messenger, and the Imams (peace be upon them), and they have appointed the jurist-guardian as the ruler.
Of course, governance is not a complicated or strange matter. For example, the father’s guardianship over the son is also a kind of governance, which must of course be based on expediency. The jurist-guardian’s governance over the people is similarly and must be according to people’s interests. Regarding the extent of the jurist-guardian’s authorities, one must refer to jurisprudential knowledge and benefit from its sources, which include numerous narrations and even like the Treatise on Rights of Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him).
Governance, of course, does not only have jurisprudential dimensions but also political and ethical dimensions.
In any case, to provide effective jurisprudential responses regarding governance, we must move beyond individual jurisprudence and toward governmental jurisprudence. To answer questions like the extent of people’s ownership and the extent of their intervention in the economy, governmental jurisprudence must respond; otherwise, individual jurisprudence cannot provide effective answers to these questions.
The issue of ownership is raised in various ways based on the views of different religions and schools. For example, based on the Islamic school and better said, based on the monotheistic worldview, ontological ownership belongs to God, and legislative and credit ownership, which returns to ontological ownership, also belongs to Him. This point, along with some other ontological and axiological foundations, plays a role in our interpretation of popularizing the economy. The method of inferring economic rulings is also important. One of the best methods proposed for discovering Islamic economic rulings is the method of Martyr Sadr in his book Iqtisaduna (Our Economics).
Some consider popularizing the economy to mean shrinking the government, whereas it is not at all; rather, based on Islamic foundations and perspectives, the government must have extensive guardianship governance to be able to realize people’s inclinations on their behalf. Whereas if we move toward shrinking the government, in fact we have performed a kind of de-sovereignization and practically reduced people’s intervention through their representatives in economic affairs and in fact formalized a kind of anarchy.
Shrinking the government, besides creating anarchy, leads to everyone pursuing their own interests, and this profit-seeking practically disrupts social order.
Popularizing the economy not only does not mean shrinking the government; rather, the government and the people are a kind of complement to each other that advance the economy together, and the share of one should not be reduced relative to the other. This view aligns with the opinion of some Muslim thinkers as well. According to them, unlike secular and democratic governments where people have no responsibility toward the government, in the Islamic approach, both the people and the government have rights and responsibilities toward each other.
Popularizing the economy is another expression of this type of interaction between people and government, through which better social cohesion also occurs.