Government Policies and Political Development in Iran (1989- 2005)

Theeffect of political development on the socio-political life cannot be denied, especially in the developing countries.Different elements play a role in the process of political development, and the government as the biggest and the most important political institution of society have an effective role among them. This reality comprises the structure of this paper whose aim is to study the relationship between government and political development.To do so, thecomparative method based on documentary study was used to study the contemporary history of Iran in which two different but consecutive periods (1989–1997) and (1997–2005) were investigated. The time frame refers to a 16-year period during which two relatively different models of political management had the control of executive power and policy-making.A comparison of the findings showed that the process of political development depends sharply on the government’s approach and its policies. Moreover, the level of strengthening or weakening of political development depends on the relationship between thegovernment and the civil society. In fact, the mechanism of this interactive network determines the reasons of differences in the quality and the quantity of political development.