The legitimacy of government is of particular importance in political philosophy because it is not possible to establish a strong community without an effective governing system.
The Issues related to it are changing and expanding by the passage of time and circumstances. In some conditions, it even extends even to the private affairs of people's lives. In recent decades, the issues regarding how to govern and the rules and criteria of government legitimacy have become more important than ever. It has received more attention in recent decades than ever before.
And have been expanded and cover various fields such as political thought, public policy and so on. Although this idea has been in the forefront of Iranian and Islamic political thought in the past. Two prominent scholars Farabi and Imam Khomeini, in addition to addressing the issue of politics and the structure of the political system, have also paid special attention to legitimacy.
Farabi stresses that a government is legitimate if the ruler has been appointed by God, the government is law-abiding and purposeful, and accepted by the people.
According to Imam Khomeini, a government is legitimate if the ruler is appointed by God, the government is accepted and win the satisfaction of people after being elected according to the majority vote. And there is two-way supervision between the people and the government. Such a government also needs a sustainable judiciary to establish
These main characteristics form the basis of the legitimacy of a government from the point of view of these two distinguished scholars.