Doctrines of Rural Participation Trend in Iran

Public Participation from viewpoint of experts is that much valuable that sometimes becomes equal to development or the means or purpose of development. Participation as a social reality and essence of human societies has deeply existed historically in human social life and is among the processes that have been changed into multi-forms by lapse of time. From the past times countrymen have had numerous Participation behaviors in form of self-help، others-help and cooperation that some of them have been existing so far. Such type of Participations are intentional، voluntary، spontaneous and without intervention of an external factor. Upon influence of the government on the rural society after land reforms and start up of countrymen support oriented policies، assignment of farmlands، granting contributions in kind and in cash without exchange to the countrymen، performing civil projects with governmental budget and developmental programs originated from the west and without any coordination with the Iranian rural society، led to disappearance of traditional Participation patterns and the government could not find a suitable substitute for such patterns; this trend caused the fading and in some cases completely disappearance of rural spontaneous Participations and cooperation and many activities were expected to be done by the government. In fact the concentrated government was not in need of having Participation of the people because of achievement of new financial resources (oil sale income، etc.)، no tax was received from the people، their needs were not met and consequently the people and the government were considered as separated. To compensate inequalities and deprivation removal، the contributions were increased during the years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran. In the beginning in the process of Construction Mobilization no emphasis was on work of rural people، instead faithful and purified manpower were dispatched to villages to do harvesting or fruit picking. If in the past only Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Civil was in charge of rural sector، after the revolution different institutions such as Construction Mobilization، Ministry of the Interior، Welfare Organization، Cooperation Organization، Foundation for the Poor، Imam Khomeini Relief Committee، Foundation for Martyrs، etc. have intervened in rural affairs and instead of playing role of gradual guidance، have continued role of intervener and helper of the rural people and this fact has led to increase of dependency of the people to the government and decrease of spirit of self-sufficiency and Participation. In fact Participation is a multi-dimensional flow، i. e. their legitimacy is not materialized only by the government because in different societies especially rural ones، there have been some institutions from the past that had been founded based on the requirements and they have survived so far and have obtained their legitimacy from social، cultural and ethical characteristics، with no need of the governments legislation. Following the imported patterns with no attention to cultural، social and economic record of the village and establishment of new Participation institutions lead to boosting of dependency of the rural people and non-use of traditional Participation patterns. Unfortunately in Iran “Modernity” refers to a group of economic and social evolutions mainly made by the highest point of fluency and power. In this paper a number of solutions have been tried to be presented to make a balance between the traditional Participation patterns and modernization programs. In this process combinational solutions are proposed and while enjoying local knowledge of rural people، that part of modernization programs is selected to be applied that is in coordination with bases of tradition and culture of rural society in order to revive Participation of rural people. To come to this result، we are in need of adjustment of power and shrinking the base of the power pyramid، paving the way for activity and Participation of the rural people، boosting spirit of collectivism، improvement of relation of the government and the nation، increasing tolerance of governmental officers in assignment of responsibilities to people، creation of group and shifting responsibilities، paying attention to social and cultural expectations، requirements and priorities of the society and contribution of the government to partners in form of contracts.