The Rural Islamic Councils, People Participation And Rural Development (Case Study: Hakimyyeh sub-District, Zaramdyyeh Township Markazi Province)

One of the rural development approaches is the down-up planning in which local people participation and their effective engagement in planning process are focus for rural development activities. The rural Islamic councils in Iran are main factor for people participation in local development. Therefore study of role of councils in rural development and assessment of people point of view about council's performance is very important. This subject was the principal motivation for studying the role of rural councils in Hakimiyyeh sub-district in Zaramdyyeh Township in Markazi province. In this research, people and council’s members’ point of view are gathered by questionnaires, and some variables such as the villager’s problems and needs, according to people and council member’s point of view, the council’s performance for doing their functions, according to the people point of view and people satisfaction about councils are studied. The results of the research indicated that the village’s councils had a good performance about the increase of people participation in rural development more than any other affairs including rural, social and economical improvement. Also according to research findings, the villagers are inclined to participate in rural development with cooperation of council’s members. Furthermore the council members have been achieved success in doing their functions. Also the cooperation and participation of local people was desirable. Therefore more strengthening of the rural councils is necessary and can be very effective in rural development.