Charitable Institutions Position in Governance Models: Analyzing the Challenges in Iran's Governance System

Paying attention to charitable institutions is expanding more and more due to the ever-increasing expansion of their role in the administration of society (Oliveira et al, 2021). Charities, as one of the components of civil society, are non-commercial, non-profit, non-governmental, non-political, and voluntary institutions that play an important role in social, health, and economic issues. The most important areas of activity of these institutions in Iran include providing financial aid, health and medical services, construction activities, education, consulting, employment and entrepreneurship, assistance in livelihood, marriage facilitation, housing provision, and so on, offered with various titles and structural formats such as charities, groups, and non-governmental organizations. The conceptualization of governance in the related literature is such that different meanings are inferred from it. On the one hand, this concept represents the emergence of the experimental way of adapting the government to its external environment, and on the other hand, it represents the theoretical expression of the coordination of social systems centered on the role of the government in this process (Pierre, 2000). In the governance continuum, different patterns can be examined and different approaches and frameworks have been presented to classify these patterns. Newman (2001) has used the competitive values ​​framework provided by Quinn and Rohrbaugh to classify governance patterns. The current research aims to answer the following questions:1. What are the conventional models of governance? 2. What is the position of charitable institutions in each of the governance models? 3. Iran's governance model is similar to which of the governance models? What are the most challenges in Iran's governance model in interaction with charity institutions?

This qualitative research was designed and implemented to systematically review the challenges of charitable institutions in the context of Iran's governance model, with the method of qualitative content analysis. In this research, by examining statistical reports, theses, articles, books, and research reports after Screening and full evaluation, a total of 28 cases were identified for qualitative synthesis. According to the subject of the research, a total of 86 codes were extracted and classified into 25 categories and 9 major challenges. Then, using the importance-performance analysis matrix (IPA), the identified factors were ranked based on the importance coefficient and weight of each characteristic.

According to the purpose of the research, the most important challenges related to governance in the interaction of charities with other stakeholders and especially government institutions, 9 basic challenges including regulatory, communication, international relations, legal, bureaucratic, informational, functional, and cultural challenges were extracted. According to the IPA matrix, 11 components in the first area with very high importance - poor performance, 3 items in the second area with high importance - good performance, 5 items in the third area with low importance - poor performance, and finally 6 components in the fourth area, with low importance - optimal performance were identified, and in each area, the identified cases were ranked based on the importance coefficient. The results of the research are generally presented in the extensive matrix of importance-performance analysis in Figure 1. Figure 1. Performance-importance analysis matrix

Examining the challenges shows that the approach of the country's governance system in interaction with the third sector, especially charities, is confused and heterogeneous, one of the main reasons for which is the mixed model of governance in the country. Based on this, it can be said that the existing governance system based on the theory of the welfare state and the traditional model of public administration for many years after the revolution and the adoption of a centralized approach in the administration of public affairs caused the marginalization of the third sector, including charitable institutions, during the following years after the revolution. A significant part of this situation is rooted in the legal system that governs the country and especially the constitution, which in some parts is based on the welfare state theory, has formed wide expectations from government institutions and has placed the majority of economic, social, cultural and political activities on the government.
The results of research in the field of challenges of charities show that in the governance dealings with charities, these institutions have either gone under the shadow of the private sector or have been marginalized due to security considerations and mistrust (Masoudipour & Bagheri Nasrabadi, 2017; Ahmadvand & Khorasani, 2017).The lack of a comprehensive law has caused arbitrary dealings with these institutions (Islamic Parliament Research Center of The Islamic Republic, 2020). The parallel work and multiplicity of custodian institutions have caused the lack of unity of action between the executive bodies, from issuing licenses to monitoring institutions. Also, the lack of an integrated information system is a serious challenge for the government (Aram, 2015). In this regard, by reducing the government's intervention, it is possible to overcome many problems which the deprived classes are facing through charitable institutions as liaisons between the deprived people and the government (Moradi, 2015).