The Profile of Good Governance in Iran: From Capacity to Opportunity

Nowadays, good governance is considered as a dominant theory and pattern in governing modern societies and set on the agenda of development thinkers and institutions as well world states and societies. In this regard, the institutional structuring and orientating process of society for development characterize its governance system and the principles, structures and mechanisms for organizing and exercising public power and authority as the focal point of governance is included and reflected in its upstream documents. Accordingly, having applied a descriptive-analytic as well as comparative-documentary method, the present study reads and represents the characteristics of good governance in the premier legal reference document of the I.R. Iran. The findings indicate that good governance principles-accountability, transparency, participation, rule of law, and efficiency- have been considered and emphasized in the I.R. Iran Constitution and, therefore, Iran enjoys the legitimate potential capacity for acceptance and implementation of good governance theory and pattern. However, the use of this actual opportunity and full realization of this dominant managerial-political paradigm requires strengthening of civil society and establishing a balance between government and civil society as the two basic pillars of good governance.