Analyzing the Governance Model of the Late Ayatollah Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi: Norm Formation and Participatory Governance toward the Realization of an Islamic Society

Governance in Islamic societies requires not only effective managerial and executive mechanisms but also normative and value-based foundations that structure the relationship between government and society around religious principles, social participation, and reciprocal responsibility. The presidential administration of the late Ayatollah Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi (2021–2024) offers a significant case for examining the relationship among Islamic values, popular participation, public service, and social policymaking. This study analyzes Raisi’s governance model, emphasizing participatory governance and norm formation as mechanisms for advancing the realization of an Islamic society. The central research problem concerns how this model linked the Qur’anic and jurisprudential foundations of governance with popular participation, public agency, and social norm formation to establish a mechanism for realizing an Islamic society. Accordingly, the study asks: How can the three-stage model of identifying social deviations, developing desirable norms through popular participation, and institutionalizing those norms be theoretically aligned with and explained through the Qur’anic and jurisprudential foundations of monotheism-oriented norm formation and the service-oriented relationship between government and society in Raisi’s governance? The study combines foundational and applied aims and adopts a qualitative, descriptive–analytical approach. Data were collected through a documentary review and analysis of the Qur’an, Islamic and jurisprudential sources, works by contemporary thinkers, statements and messages of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi, and relevant studies on Islamic governance, norm formation, and social participation. The theoretical analysis of norm formation and institutionalization draws on sociological perspectives, particularly Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s model of externalization, objectivation, and internalization, alongside approaches to attitudinal and behavioral change. The resulting analytical components were then examined in relation to the Qur’anic foundations of governance and evidence concerning Raisi’s managerial discourse and performance. The findings indicate that Raisi’s governance model can be conceptualized around three foundational principles—monotheism, justice, and hayat-e tayyibah (the good life)—within a service-oriented relationship between government and society. Monotheism provides the basis for the legitimacy and value orientation of governance; justice organizes social, economic, and political relations; and hayat-e tayyibah constitutes the ultimate goal of policymaking and governance. The analysis further indicates that popular participation was conceived not merely as an instrument of policy implementation or a mechanism for securing political support but as a constituent element of religious democracy and a significant factor in fulfilling social responsibility and transforming social conditions. Another major finding is the identification of three interconnected stages of norm formation in Raisi’s governance: identifying and diagnosing social deviations; creating and promoting desirable norms grounded in Islamic values; and institutionalizing and internalizing those norms. In the first stage, the identification of corruption, discrimination, injustice, and certain forms of managerial inefficiency provided the basis for corrective intervention. In the second stage, values such as justice, anti-corruption, support for domestic production, independence, accountability, and public service were reproduced through policies, executive measures, and public discourse. In the third stage, efforts were made to translate these values into enduring managerial practices and public demands through transparency, oversight, public reporting, provincial visits, and anti-corruption measures. A prominent example is the government’s set of fourteen measures aimed at promoting economic transparency, addressing the structural drivers of corruption, reforming financial processes, and strengthening oversight of public resources. These measures indicate that norm formation extended beyond discourse into policymaking and institutional action. Popular participation thus operates both in identifying problems and deviations and in accepting, demanding, and consolidating desirable norms. The study concludes that Raisi’s governance model can be characterized as value-oriented, participatory, and norm-formative. Within this model, the realization of an Islamic society is pursued by linking monotheistic foundations, social justice, public service, and popular agency. Its principal theoretical contribution lies in connecting Islamic governance with the sociological processes of norm formation and consolidation, through which religious values are translated from theoretical foundations into policymaking, institutional structures, and ultimately collective consciousness and behavior. The sequence of identifying deviations → creating desirable norms → institutionalizing and internalizing norms is therefore proposed as an analytical mechanism for understanding norm formation in Raisi’s governance. Sustaining this process requires the Islamic state to maintain its normative and monotheistic orientation while fostering meaningful public participation, institutional accountability, transparency, justice, and social responsibility. With due consideration of
its historical and institutional limitations and contextual conditions, Raisi’s governance experience offers a valuable case for rethinking the relationships among religion, the state, society, popular participation, and the institutionalization of Islamic values, while informing governance policymaking in contemporary Muslim societies.