Contingency Model for Identifying Public Issues in Iran's Policy-Making Process with an Emphasis on Triggering

Public issues are a widespread phenomenon and the weakness in their presence has led to inefficiency in government policies. Utilizing a comprehensive and contingent model for identifying public issues enables the country to fully identify priorities and strategies by knowing all the tools for controlling barriers and problems. This study presents a contingency model for the identification public issues in Iran.

In this study, content analysis has been employed, and 16 in-depth interviews with experts are used to answer the research questions. For data analysis, coding is done in three stages of basic, organizing, and pervasive theme network. Then, the designed model is tested by Delphi method

The data analysis resulted in 66 basic themes, 24 organizing themes, 6 pervasive themes, and the theoretical model formation has been validated with two rounds of Delphi method.

State actors, non-state actors, subject sensitivity, subject area, time course of event occurrence, and event-related costs affect the process of identifying public issues in Iran. Government actors are comprised of the government (executive branch), the Islamic Consultative Assembly (legislature) and constitutional individuals and entities. Non-state actors include stakeholder groups. The sensitivity of the subject includes the negative impact of the subject on community sentiment, unforeseen and critical incident, previous negative public experience, subject strength and aging and environmental issues. Subject area includes geographical extent, number of people involved, public awareness, and issues and consequences of foreign and international activities. The time course of the event includes economic crises, military and terrorist threats, natural or abnormal accidents, long history of problems, social changes and technological breakthroughs. The event-related costs include creating a significant opportunity cost for political decisions, financial damages, life damages and threats to human health, and the negative impact of a situation or phenomenon on people.