Certain aspects of the comparative analysis of leadership in the People’s Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Iran

The research considers and compares such component of the political system as political leadership in two Eastern neo-authoritarian states based on the analysis of the theoretical program works, laws and regulations and a number of leadership theories. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the People’s Republic of China characterizing by the specific features of political development have a number of common features: traditionalism, the domination of national political relations, the state’s priority over the person, the special role of a strong personality and political leader. The paper focuses on studying the theory of paternalistic leadership of J.L. Farh, J. Liang, L.F. Chou and B.S. Cheng with regard to the President of the People’s Republic of China. Besides, the research analyzes the Neo-Shiite concept of Wilayat al-Faqih by R. Khomeini related to the Iranian model of statehood.