Explanation of Requirements for Promoting Iran’s Rural and Nomadic Development Policymaking System based on Jihadi Management Style

The rural development policymaking system has different agents including the public and private sectors. If the system continuously receives field information from rural and nomadic areas and processes them correctly, it can provide and implement efficient policies for achieving the supreme goals and a desirable future. In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, a traditional paradigm was used to govern development. In this paradigm, based on the modernization doctrines and technocratic and bureaucratic principles, development merely referred to the economic growth; the participation of local communities had no value in the policy-making and management of development. In the present study, grounded theory has been employed as a method to analyze the statements made by Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei, respectively, as the former and current supreme leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran and extract the features and functions of the jihadi style of management. The aforementioned approach of the present study was adopted based on the fundamental role of these two supreme leaders in the formation and guidance of the Jihad of Construction. According to the experiences of Jihad of Construction, the perspective of the policymaking system of rural and nomadic development in Iran must be empowering and elevating people and making a good life possible through simultaneous attention to material and spiritual aspects of the lives of villagers and nomads. In recent years, owing to the dominance of hardware and basic needs approaches, the villagers and nomads have become passive settlers, whereas human capital is the main axis of development.