Planning Pathology in Iran Based on Mission-centrism in Regional Development Policy- Making

Planning and policy –making have always been regarded as purposeful development methods for preparing spatial, national, and regional schemes among the experts. Planners and decision-makers always need new strategies for preparation and prediction of future events. Environmental complexities also create more challenges to the work of decision-makers. This survey is of analytic type, examining the qualities and processes of planning with critical perspectives based on mission-centrism rather than project-centrism. Despite 60 years of planning actions in Iran, these activities have not been coordinated and well –organized. Identifying macro plans and policies, five-year development plans lead to specific projects to meet some quantitative goals. This relates to project-orientation in executive departments, managerial defects, and attempts of the executives for representing nice statistics of their performance during their careers. Inconstancy of management periods in most cases causes the managers to resort to short-term and profitable plans, avoiding long-term plans with late profits. This study aimed to review some managerial issues in national planning and development projects in both micro and macro levels, referring to the challenges in this field. The findings of this study revealed that project –driven plans need to be replaced with mission-driven ones to reduce the damages to development plans of Iran which is applicable by providing macro plans and regional development.