Social Policy in IRAN (Spatial Coverage of Social Security System)

This paper discusses the situation of social policy in Iran under the rule of the modern state through the spatial coverage of the social security system. The investigation using documentary and a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods has considered the inequality amongst provinces under the shadow of social security which in the recent century has led to a situation of the center-peripheries. Territorial centralism of the modern state and consequently the Tehran-axial which itself mutually fosters centralism and center-peripheral inequality, a system of planning from above and distribution of occupation opportunities, industry and services, and the allocation of social policy-making, economic and welfare resources based on the capital in the period of Pahlavi state and its continuation into the period of the Islamic Republic has resulted in spatial imbalance and reduction and stabilization of the political-economic and social situation of marginal regions which so-called the peripheries. Inequality and distance between regions in the shape of center-peripheries has led to the imbalance in the coverage of the social security system throughout the country since the social security system and its insurances expand following the cycle of industries, employment and services.