Evaluating the Effects of Good Governance on the Sustainability of Rural Households(Case Study: Rural Areas of Kashan)

Problem statement: 

Ensuring sustainable development and measuring the well-being of a society heavily relies on maintaining and enhancing rural stability. This research study adopted a descriptive-survey approach to analyze the structural relationships between rural sustainability and four dimensions, drawing upon the theoretical foundations of W.G. Newman (1999) and the eight dimensions of good governance as defined by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

This study was designed with an applied purpose and utilized a survey methodology for data collection. The statistical population of the study consisted of the heads of rural households in Kashan City with a total population of 364,482 individuals. By employing the Karjesi-Morgan table, the sample size for the study was determined to be 379 participants. A multi-stage sampling method was employed to select the participants for this research. The calculated value of Cronbach's alpha for the indicators of good governance and rural sustainability were 0.75 and 0.72, respectively.

Data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 24 and AMOS software packages. The findings indicated that both the components of good governance and rural stability in the villages of Kashan City were evaluated as average and below the optimal level with the average scores of 3.120 and 2.773, respectively. Furthermore, favorable causal relationships were observed between the components of good governance and rural stability as indicated by a fitted model (RMSEA=0.022). The research findings suggested that enhancing indicators, such as legality, transparency, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness, participation, consensus, justice, and accountability could significantly contribute to the development of rural sustainability components.