An Opportunity to Deal with the Concept of Planning in Iran

The purpose of this research is to present a definition of planning based on the theoretical foundations of institutionalism and "the four levels of social analysis” model of Williamson. The main question of this research is: in order to prepare, compile and implement a planning properly and desirably, what requirements are needed and what are the obstacles to fulfill this. What distinguishes this study from others is paying attention to the principles of participatory planning and bottom-up approach and using the literature of institutionalism and the kind of their attitude for presenting a perception of a process of desirable planning.
Generally, what has caused this to be our concern is that despite a long history in the planning, planning system of Iran has less focused on the bottom-up manner or on the participation of community members to explain the planning and considered it centrally and in top-down pattern. Therefore, this research has presented a sort of participatory planning with its requirements and obstacles, with regard to the viewpoints of institutionalist to economic performance. Based on the indicators derived from these requirements, it is recommended that, in order to achieve the developmental goals of this research, this type of planning approach, which has a participatory and a bottom-up approach, should be used instead of the conventional and existing one.