Identifying and presenting the classification of soft instrument in the governance & policy making system

The requirements of the current world, including the necessity of citizens' participation, the lack of direct will of governments and the advancement of goals by influencing the interests and preferences of citizens, make it necessary to adopt a soft governance approach. In this regard, soft governance tools have been proposed and used in recent years. Soft tools are non-binding, interpretable, flexible and include a high degree of delegation in formation and formulation, and in this way, increase the quality of policies. The aim of the current research is to identify and typify soft policy-making tools in order to prepare a soft governance toolbox in the national policy-making system. The present research, by combining existing studies, identified 30 soft tools in the policy-making system, and with the aim of facilitating the use of these tools, with the focus group method, a classification based on two dimensions of the level of effectiveness of the tool (including: people / context and context)) and the purpose of using the tool (including: encouraging and persuading/accelerating and facilitating/improving quality/localizing/regulating/obstructing and deterring). Also, with the aim of smart implementation, it is necessary to consider the necessary platform in the use of each of the soft tools, and this category of tools should be used as a supplement and facilitator along with hard tools such as legislation.Keywords:Administrative System efficiency, Policy Tools, Soft Governance, Soft Tools, classification of Tools