Time, Problematic Situations and Social Policy Process (Case Study: 8th & 9th Parliament of Iran)

Policy-making is in practice a systematic activity that involves a set of decisions, plans, and practices. Shortages, contradictions or weakness in laws in responding to social issues often leads policymakers to formulate or reform social policies in the form of bills / plans. Policy-making is in practice a discipline that involves a set of decisions, plans, and practices. Legal vacuum, conflict or legal impediment in responding to social issues often leads policymakers to formulate or reform social policies in the form of bills / plans. In this context. Time duration (between becoming problematic and reaction to) is important. Extending this gap can exacerbate the problem or even cause a new issue/ issues, so that the embedded policy measures do not work in the past.
Asking a question about the "state of time" in the reality of social policy (focusing on plans / bills) required the present study.
To examine the issue empirically and provide appropriate evidence on the research subject; the method of analyzing documents and mixed of qualitative and quantitative techniques were applied. Sampling method was purposeful. The plans and bills related to social policy in 8th and 9th Parliaments, and documents that have information about the date and outcome of their review (from the beginning to the notification).
The results show that the average time between receipt and approval of plans and bills (irrespective of residual or deregulated items) has been around 22 to 25 months Which the most bureaucratic bills have been in the area of justice and the most time-consuming one has not been acted yet from around 12 years ago. Also the research data does not show a logical and meaningful relationship between proximity to election time and the rejection or approval of plans and bills in the policy domain. Besides that thepatterns of approvals are not endorsed separately from the various years of life of each parliament.
Generally, the problem of social phenomena in the legislature has not been dominant in parliament and the patterns of approvals are not endorsed separately from the various years of life of each parliament. Finally the findings indicate that the process of social policy through the parliament is very time consuming; on the other hand, it generally does not follow a timely response to social problems.
Hence from this perspective, it seems that the social policy process in the parliament needs to be reviewed and improved.