The Role of Islamic Government in Realizing Economic Independence in the Last Three Decades

Achieving economic independence and an acceptable degree of self-sufficiency has been an ideal of different societies throughout history. The main purpose of this paper is to explicate the economic independence's status in Islam and the government’s role in its being realized. To do this, we first theoretically analyze the concepts of economic independence, using religious texts, especially Quran, tradition and the opinions of Islamic scholars, including Imam Khomeini. Then, using descriptive statistics, we study the different criteria of economic independence. Finally, this paper tries to model and assess the role of government in realizing economic independence between 1979 and 2010, using time -varying parameter (TVP) approach and Kalman filter method. The results of the model show that government's current spending has increased economic dependence during this period, but its construction spending has always reduced dependency and promoted economic independence. The findings also show that economic growth in Iran has not been effective in decreasing or increasing dependency.