A Reflection on the Theoretical Formations of Social Security

Despite the impact of theoretical approaches explaining the concept of social security on the social security system, often in Iran, this concept does not have an independent status in sociological analysis and its theoretical analysis is reductionist and is usually considered as an economic concept. After reviewing and explaining the existing theories, the formation of theories was presented based on the three models of welfare state, good governance and governmantality. Their review reveals differences around the two issues of perceiving the power and purpose of social security. In the approaches of welfare state and good governance, power is understood in a structuralist, non-historical and hierarchical way. It is responsible for the implementation of social security programs But in the governance approach, it is understood as a special way of exercising power and governing over oneself and citizens to optimize living standards.Also, the critical evaluation of these theoretical models implies that the approaches that have considered social security as a text and discourse, with a critical, historical and discourse approach, unveil the values, assumptions and ideological dimensions and political rationality of social security. And they have more explanation.