Proceedings of The 4th International Conference on Research in Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2021
DOI:
Development Plans, Civil Society and Social Cohesion: Building Local Commitment to Development in Iran
Hamid Sajadi
ABSTRACT:
The predominant belief that development is facilitated through the management and reformist direction of variables and components of a social system has resulted in the formulation and implementation of long-term Development Plans by most countries of the world especially the developing countries including Iran. However, the centralization of political systems in developing countries, the top-down approach in drawing up and putting the Development Plans into action and the minor role of beneficiary groups in this process have contributed to the lack of a broad consensus over the Plans and deprived them of the participation of society in development. The present study, having adopted a qualitative approach, evaluates the Five-Year Development Plans of Iran in the last three decades, and tries to present a new pattern of planning with the distinctive feature of generating cohesion. The utilized method was descriptive-analytical and the data collected through direct observation and interviews with experts, academic elites and collecting questionnaires. SWOT method was applied to analyze the data.
Keywords: civil society, development plans, monitoring, participation, social cohesion.