The Status of Indicators of Good Urban Governance in Arak City, Iran, in the Viewpoints of Urban Managers and Citizens

Today, the good urban governance approach has been introduced as the most effective and sustainable method of management practice. Arak, as one of the most important industrial cities in the country, has many problems which need to pay attention to management patterns that can be considered as one of the appropriate solutions to overcome these problems. The purpose of this study is to investigate good urban governance as a case study in Arak city from the perspective of urban managers and citizens.

This descriptive-analytical study was carried out using a survey method (questionnaire) in the form of urban good governance indices. Population of study include managers and citizens of arak and study sample was 100 for managers and 384 for citizens.

Findings showed that most of Arak city governance indicators were not suitable from the viewpoint of urban managers and citizens, but social justice and law indicators with a coefficient of 2.44 and 1.90 respectively from urban managers and citizens’ perspectivewere in the worst situation. Six governance indicators have the ability to explain less than 50% of the satisfaction index. In terms of spatial distribution of good governance, the differences between regions in the two indicators of participation and access to information were significant. Structural equation modeling also showed that good governance indices in Arak are in poor condition, which confirms the developed model.

Arak is in an unsuitable position in terms of indicators of good urban governance.