The Role of the Waqf Institution in the Development Process: New Institutionalism Approach

Although the Waqf institution has played an important role in the development process, the decline of its involvement in the development of Islamic societies is an issue that has been less socially analyzed. However, the new institutionalism approach in economic sociology, by providing a benefit-based definition of institutions and defining the mechanism of causal relationships between different levels of formal and informal constraints, considers actors in their actions as having limited rationality in the context shaped by networks, norms, cultural beliefs, and formal institutional arrangements. Because new institutionalism in economic sociology has provided a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding economic behavior and the analysis of institutions, The purpose of the present study is to introduce new institutionalism in economic sociology as an analytical approach with a descriptive-analytical method and Based on this approach, analyze the factors affecting the role of waqf as a social economic institution in the Development Process of Islamic Iran. The results indicate that the waqf institutional environment, management of endowments trustees and Trustee organizations of waqf, intentions, motives and social norms among dedicator, are the most important factors that have affected the waqf institution's developmental role in iran.