Structural analysis of national government and local management in the Iranian constitution on the basis of good urban governance

This paper attempts to examine the issue of which criteria relevant to the relations between national government and good urban governance are in keeping with the criteria of good urban governance in the Iranian constitution. By reading the constitution, it attempts to analyze its contents as the main resource for planning at the local and national levels. From a theoretical aspect, the theoretic framework was designed through the employment of an approach for good urban governance in relation to Iran’s local requirements. The main indices that were selected consist of eight indices: effectiveness, decentralization and attention to local requirements, equality, right of participation and citizenship, coordination and consensus-orientation, regulatory compliance, accountability and transparency and truthfulness. Content analysis was used as the qualitative method of the research for description of the constitution through coding and systematic classification procedures. The use of this approach allowed us to describe the real nature of data using a qualitative method. The results show that in the Iranian constitution, suitable governance indices have been emphasized. The right to participation and accountability show the highest level of compatibility with the Iranian constitution while decentralization and regulatory compliance show the lowest level. Therefore, this approach was supported by the legislators at the time of writing of the Iranian constitution; attracting citizen participation, accountability, government structure response to the councils, and decentralization in the administration of the country’s affairs through local councils. In conclusion, on the basis of what was stated in the constitution regarding local and national governance is compatible with good urban governance criteria.