A Look at the Presidential System from Farabi's Philosophy

I wrote this article about ten years ago. On one occasion these days, I felt the need to re-examine Farabi's philosophy. In this context, I wanted to share my thoughts on the subject of Presidency with you, together with the readings of Farabi.
We have a tradition of having the longest parliamentary system experience in the Islamic world. Nizam-ı Cedid searches, Tanzimat and Islahat Fermanları, I and II. The Republic of Turkey was established on the Ottoman accumulation formed by the declarations of the Constitutional Monarchy. With the proclamation of the Republic, we prioritized democracy, which ensures the dominance of rules in the administration, the self-government of the people either directly or through elected representatives. When we look at this process, the issue of who and how is important.

Is it democracy? Party-ocracy?

We have a parliamentary system, but when we look at the practices since the first period, it is also known that we have been governed by a Presidency and/or Semi-Presidential System, and that each of the party leaders actually established a Presidential System in their own right, turning their parties into a dynasty and governing like a "Sultan, Sultan". Although the concept of popular domination has been discussed since the experiences of the Constitutional Monarchy, and even at that time it meant domination of property and participation of everyone in the government through their representatives, today the people cannot choose their own candidates and vote for the candidates of the party leader and administrators (dynasty). Therefore, although the public seems to elect their representatives, to a large extent this is an illusion. In this respect, the current structure is not democracy, which means the rule of the people, but party-ocracy; it would be more appropriate to say party management. Then “Who and How Manages?” It is necessary to re-centre the question. This is what has been important since Aristotle, known as "The Teacher Before" in the history of thought.

The First Theorist of Islamic Political Philosophy: Al-Farabi

We decided to focus on Farabi (v.950), known as "Muallimi Sani", to address the problem of administrators and management and contribute to the negotiations. Because Farabi is a Turkish thinker who was born in the butcher of Farab in the Çayardı (Transoxiana) region and is the first political philosopher of Islamic thought. He is a scholar who knows the Greek tradition, Islamic thought and Turkish customs and established a philosophical system that blends the relationship between politics and morality with the data of these three ideas. In his work called "The Count of Sciences", which is a classic of thought, he examines politics as a branch of science under philosophy under the title of "Civil Science".
Fârâbî points out the necessary relationship between ethics and politics by dividing philosophy, that is, wisdom, into two as theoretical and practical. According to him, practice, that is, practical philosophy, is divided into moral (sanaatu'l hulkiyye) and political philosophy. The first goal of the science of politics is to search for true happiness. This takes place in the main framework of philosophy to achieve happiness (Tahsilu's-saada). In this sense, the importance of weeding out the actions that do not lead to real happiness emerges.
This issue is put into practice in cities through the profession of “President”. In short, the science of politics has two major duties, the first of which is to separate real happiness from false happiness. The second is to ensure that the actions and behaviors that lead to real happiness are established in the country and continue undisturbed.

Virtuous management and presidency

According to Fârâbî, regardless of the nature of the society, there must be a president at its head. The source and responsible of the goodness and competence in the society is the president of that society. The same is true for negativity, evil and lack in society. But from the point of view of "what should be", the president, who should be in the first place, should be virtuous (al-fadıll). If the president is virtuous, his views and actions will be virtuous, and his administration will be virtuous (Medinetu'l-Fazila).
According to Al-Farabi, the First President is responsible for true happiness only by “making different tribes like a family”, that is, “making the poor rich, few more, glorifying the nation and making them brothers to each other, ensuring order and peace”.

First President and his characteristics

Until recently, we used the word "Reis-i Cumhur" as the word "Reisü'l-evvel" in our country. Now we call him "President", which corresponds to Al-Farabi as the First President. It enumerates and explains twelve characteristics that the first president should have in al-Medinatü'l-Fâzila, and six features in Füsûlü'l-madani. The first president divides the work among the people of the city of which he is the head, in order to ensure the highest happiness of that people, and then preserves and maintains it. It does this through legislation and rule-making. Since the probability of collecting the listed qualities in a single person is very low, he acts with a second president who possesses these characteristics. The second presidency is the presidency that follows the path of the first presidency in its actions. The person who fulfills this presidency is called the head of tradition (reisü's-sunne) and the melik of tradition (melikü's-sunne). Its presidency is called tradition presidency (er-riasetü's-sunniyye).

Semi-Presidential System and Farabi

Based on this approach, we can say that Farabi found the "Semi-Presidential" system more reasonable. The first President is Reisü'l-evvel and the President of the Republic, and we can call the second President the "Prime Minister".
Farabi describes the relationship between the First and Second President by analogy with the human body: The heart governs and corresponds to the First President; the brain corresponds to the vice-president both directs and is directed. The people, on the other hand, are the other limbs and represent the governed. It is the right time to reconsider the relationship between politics and morality and the views of our philosopher, who has internalized the three traditions of the History of Intellectual History (Turkish, Islamic and Greek), and his views on the management problem in detail.