Vanguardism is a strategy whereby the most class-conscious and politically advanced sections of the proletariat or working class, described as the revolutionary vanguard, form organizations in order to draw larger sections of the working class towards revolutionary politics and serve as manifestations of proletarian political power against its class enemies. In theory, the revolutionary vanguard is not intended to be an organization separate from the working class that attempts to place itself at the center of the movement and steer it in a direction consistent with its own ideology. It is instead intended to be an organic part of the working class that comes to socialist consciousness as a result of the dialectic of class struggle.

Vilayat-e Faqih is a post-Age-of-Occultation theory in Shia Islam which holds that Islam gives a faqīh (Islamic jurist) custodianship over people. Ulama supporting the theory disagree over how encompassing custodianship should be. One interpretation – Limited Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist – holds that guardianship should be limited to non-litigious matters (al-omour al-hesbiah)[1] including religious endowments (Waqf)[2] judicial matters[3] and the property for which no specific person is responsible. Another – Absolute Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist – maintains that Guardianship should include all issues for which Prophet of Islam and Shi'a Imam have responsibility, including governance of the country. The idea of guardianship as rule was advanced by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in a series of lectures in 1970 and now forms the basis of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The constitution of Iran calls for a faqih, or Vali-ye faqih (Guardian Jurist), to serve as the Supreme Leader of the government.[4][5] In the context of Iran, Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist is often referred to as "rule by the jurisprudent", or "rule of the Islamic jurist".

After researching these two ideas, I have come to the conclusion that they are merely two different interpretations of the same thing. They are both marketing gimmicks pointed towards the highly uneducated citizens within the country. The same people want to be provided with a sense of assurance, stability, and safety for themselves and their family. The so called Vanguards undoubtedly consolidated power within themselves to form the power structure of the Soviet Union. They then disallowed and disenfranchised any form of political opposition that challenged the socio-economic policies of the ruling government. AkA talk shit... go to the Gulag.

With Vilayat-e Faqih, this essentially equates to Theocratic Despotism. The religious authorities of the country were also able to consolidate power within themselves which has led to Iran's current state where the powers of the Majles and President are merely ceremonial in nature. The supreme leader, Guardian Council and the Expediency Council have virtually all the power. This is why more than ever, the people are clamoring for reform.

The Vanguards and the Islamic Jurists of Iran have set these countries backwards in terms of Meritocracy, Liberalism, and Democracy especially in the area of government. Russia is still being affected by this dearly especially with how the Oligarchs took advantage of such disenfranchised and incapacitated people. The people of Iran will soon have to go through a long and drawn out process towards democratic and meritocratic reform. These countries in 2017 are generally getting better in terms of education and standards of living. Although we can not deny the damage that has been done due to the extreme desire for power by a few. Lastly, we can see that any type of anti-democratic/authoritarian system that are actually supported by quite a few amount of subscribers of this subreddit will most likely lead to more harm than good.