A Critical View of Iranian Government’s Centralized Planning Approach

Development planning in Iran has its history, but not much progress has yet been made in terms of balanced development in the country. The aim of the current research was to examine and analyze the country's centralized planning system in order to pinpoint its weaknesses and challenges and to present a solution.

The research was applied in terms of purpose and qualitative in terms of the nature of the data. In the qualitative part, the statistical population included academic and organizational experts in the field of public administration, and data was obtained through interviews with experts.

  Results show that changing the existing path and trying to reduce the gaps requires serious changes in the mindset of centralized planning. The direction should be towards decentralized, regionalism and pluralistic planning. Also, identifying the challenges of centralized planning in Iran can help the policy makers and policy implementers to focus on the mentioned challenges when formulating and implementing development plans so that they may face fewer problems during the implementation phase.

Originality: 

The use of the qualitative method and a wide range of data sources has made it possible to reach a new classification of the challenges of centralized programs in Iran, which covers different dimensions of policy implementation. The present research has been able to propose a defensible theoretical basis for planning in the administrative system in the development program in Iran and to help improve and promote development policymaking and planning.