The Significance of Social Capital in Iran's Decision Making and Sustainable Development Programming

Literature review on the theory of social capital shows that the main goal of pioneers of this theory has been making public policy makers aware of the fact that without the role played by the social networks and the interactions taken place at the grassroots level, it would be extremely difficult to push forward developmental programs. In other words, attaining a balanced and sustainable development would be the outcome of designing programs and policies deeply rooted in the culture and other characteristics of the land of policy making. As in this way, social cohesion, cooperation and participation of the public for the realization of targeted policy objectives would be attained and strong social connectedness between the people and government of a country would be possible. The assessment of past long and medium term programs shows that one of the main reasons for the failure of some public policies and programs has been due to the lack of social consensus and social agreement over the program's specific objectives. Having this in mind, the current paper tries to utilize the concept of social capital in order to analyze and assess Iran's recent macro policies and developmental programs.