Ma`rifat Siyasi

In modern political philosophy, the relationship between ethics and politics has largely been framed through the dichotomy of “ethics without power” versus “power without ethics.” Thinkers such as Rawls, Habermas, and Williams have each offered influential responses to this tension. However, far less attention has been paid to a more fundamental question: how moral values, once they enter the field of power, become vulnerable to structural appropriation and inversion. This study aims to address this gap by offering the first systematic reconstruction of Shahid Beheshti’s theory of political ethics. The central hypothesis is that, in Beheshti’s thought, the separation of ethics and politics constitutes an epistemic error. Ethics forms the foundation of political order and can endure only through institutional backing and the structural containment of power; conversely, power achieves legitimacy and sustainability only when operating within an ethical framework. Methodologically, the research employs a qualitative design that combines thematic analysis—used to extract the internal structure of Beheshti’s thought—with a structured comparative analysis that situates his theory alongside major Western political-ethical traditions. The findings present Beheshti’s model as a “dual sustainability framework”: power stabilizes ethics, while ethics restrains and legitimizes power. The study argues that this framework constitutes a form of virtue-oriented critical realism that transcends the classical dichotomy between moral idealism and political realism. Within this model, religion functions as a “normative architect”—a structural framework that transforms virtue into social force and power into responsibility.