Human as the Nodal Point in Moderation Discourse: An Analysis of the Governance of Imam ALI

This article tries to articulate ‘Moderation Discourse’ based
upon post-structuralism approach and discourse analysis
(DA), Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory and Van Dijk’s
model. To this end, first, we sketch out and discuss the theoretical
and methodological principles of the study of discourse
and discourse analysis and we do our utmost effort to show
how a notion can take a vast array of meanings, changing into
a structured totality, we call discourse. Then, we present a picture
of the main political discourses shaping Iranian identity
since the Islamic Revolution reaching Moderation Discourse.
To fix the meaning of Moderation Discourse, we analyzed Imam
Ali’s ideas and teachings relating to the governance of justice
and stretch out a net of floating and empty signifiers around a
certain nodal point. Then, a unified system of meaning different
from other discourses is created. Chain of equivalence and 
horizontal differences are constituted to determine conceptual
in-groups and out-groups. Attempts are made to transform elements
into moments by reducing their polysemy to a partially
fixed meaning. We adopted certain defined practices of attraction
and exclusion in the form of contingent and permanent
considerations. So to understand what Moderation Discourse
is, we fully delimit and define its meanings, and to establish
and embody it as a totality and a role model of governance, details
and principles of Hazrat Ali’s formula for good governance
is added.