An Assessment of Justice Discourse with in Social Security in Governments After Islamic Revolution

Social Security, in its broad sense, has always been one of human wishes and humans have always been concerned with a secure and comfortable life – a life free from any worries and suffering so as to enable humans to engage in more transcendental aspects of life and not worry about unclear future while doing a living. In the modern world, this earliest goal is achieved through social security and particularly efficient social insurance systems and social support and contributions. These were included and asserted in the Principle 29 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Iran. The present paper aims to answer the primary question of the research: to what extent were the justice discourses dominating social security considered in the four governments after Islamic revolution in Iran, namely Holy Defense Government (Moosavi cabinet), Construction Government (Rafsanjani cabinet), Reform Government (Khatami cabinet) and Justice-oriented Fundamentalist Government (Ahmadinejad cabinet)? To answer this question, the qualitative method, and the Norman Fairclough, Ernesto LacLau and Chantal Mouffe discourse analysis methods were used. Besides, the research was grounded on social justice as a blank signifier and "social security" as a central indicator. Given that measures taken in the area of social security include four sectors of insurance, social support, rehabilitation and first aid, results from discourse analysis suggest that the blank signifier, i.e. social justice, is limited to the framework of the central indicator, social security, throughout macro discourses. Accordingly, social justice has been assumed to include such main indicators as the provision of insurance and first aid to all members of the society (of course with the minimal approach to social security in Holy Defense discourses and considering the comprehensive social security structure in reformist discourses), the provision of social support (within the limits of social security system in construction discourses) and the provision of insurance support (within the multidimensional approach to social Security in justice-oriented fundamentalist discourses). It is evident that after the Islamic Revolution, different governments have followed different approaches to the fulfillment of social justice in the light of social security.