Rural Management in Contemporary Iran

As a means available to rural management, authority is a fully dynamic phenomenon. The contemporary history of Iranian villages indicates that authority and power have, as controlling measures in respect of rural affairs, been practiced in various forms within three distinct time periods. In the period before the land reforms of the year 1962, authority was conferred upon aldermen (chiefs of Villages) in line with the protection of benefits of land owners. Chiefs of villages were in fact the means of establishment and maintenance of an order in villages within the period. Within the period from land reform and the Islamic Revolution of the year 1979, the authority and power that manifested itself in the presence of chiefs of villages began to fade away along with the decline of power of major landlords in Iran and village masters were appointed as official representatives of the government. After the Islamic revolution bow ever, a new foundation was formed in villages that were called Islamic council. Islamic councils have the responsibility of controlling the affairs of villages with the authority that is based on public participation. The present article has concluded that establishment and maintenance of order in rural communities has in all the aforesaid three periods, been involving special problems and in our days also Iranian villages suffer the absence of true management in spite of the presence of an official managerial foundation in each village. The collation to this social problem seems to be the creation of a bond between the rural controlling foundations and the overall structure of the society.