NOURNEWS: "Progress and development" have been Iranians' dream over the past couple of centuries. Content production and literature about "progress" and "advancement" or "development" in contemporary Iran date back to the period before the Constitutional Movement. However, measures and various programs have not led to the full actualization of this longstanding demand so far, and Iranians still do not consider themselves a developed nation. In addition to that, a heavy competition has formed among regional countries to achieve higher development indexes over the past decades.
Naturally, development is a gradual and relative subject, but Iran is still far from meeting development standards. The generalization of the development notion in Iran’s society and the emphasis of different political groups on moving towards development is a goodwill gesture. In the upcoming presidential election, the topic of development has been the focal point among the candidates. Electoral candidates’ attention to development and their programs to achieve it are enough to increase hope for the acceleration of development in Iran.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has drafted seven five-year programs on the subject of development. These programs determine the general path of managing the country for a five-year period at least on paper, emphasizing program-orientation and its importance.
In addition to the five-year development program, documents such as the general policies of the system, as well as the 20-Year National Vision Document, are also among the upstream documents.
The upstream documents aim at channeling or orienting the actions of different entities in the country along a similar path to focus more on fundamental priorities in the pursuit of national interests and power. The Islamic Republic has been successful in determining upstream documents, but its execution of them is not defensible.
According to the assessments of parliament, only between 30 to 35 percent of the past six programs have been executed. The actualization of the 20-Year National Vision was not much better by the year ending in 1402 (Iranian calendar) compared to the five-year development programs.
So, the emphasis of the candidates on the 7th development program can be pleasing and promising only if they provide detailed plans on how they intend to execute them. Otherwise, their today's stance will be seen as empty election promises in the public opinion and among elites and media outlets.
Criticisms about the quality and mechanisms of planning in Iran, including the way the five-year development programs are drafted, remain. However, these expert criticisms and the path to reforming them are one discussion, while the effort to implement the development program law or work towards achieving its indicators as a legal and official framework to avoid costly and non-priority scattershot efforts is another matter.
The discussion about program orientation and the emphasis on implementing upstream programs is more significant and hopeful now because election candidates, due to their sudden and unexpected entry into the elections, may not have well-developed and comprehensive plans. Therefore, it is appropriate for the government to equip and mobilize itself to implement these upstream documents.
Thus, it is necessary for election candidates to have clear agendas for implementing upstream programs and to develop new mechanisms for drafting programs based on the country's current priorities. According to some experts, the current method of program drafting, which includes a collection of scattered small and large issues, does not meet objectives and may be one of the reasons for the lack of implementation of development programs.
This will not be achieved unless a president takes office at Pastour who can create a consensus among governance elites (officials of various country entities) on major national issues. At the same time, they must also strive to involve non-governmental elites and create a national consensus from the collective elite and expert capacities of the country.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has so far suffered from the absence of such a consensus, incurring significant financial and moral costs. However, these efforts and costs have not led to any success amid disagreements, a lack of cooperation, and continued electoral competition beyond the elections, forcing repetitive lawmaking, to the point where it is said that Iran faces a law inflation.
Until a common understanding of priority issues and a shared will to address and solve them is established, changes in governments and parliaments will be ineffective and will not lead to the realization of the long-standing national desire for development. The only solution is striving for consensus building. It seems that, based on past experiences, this understanding is gradually forming among Iranian political activists and elites that replacing confrontation with cooperation is a national necessity for building a better future for Iran. In any case, at least on paper, the conditions for achieving such a state, that is, moving towards cooperative and consensus-building approaches on major issues and priorities, are in place. Hopefully, through the upcoming election competition, these hopes will move from paper to the field of implementation and action.
NOURNEWS