فصلنامه سیاستگذاری عمومی
سال نهم شماره 2 (تابستان 1402)

The budget deficit crisis is among the most significant economic issues in Post-Islamic Revolution of Iran and has been the cause of many other crises like the two-digit inflation rate and destructive governmental interference in the market. Keeping the government’s budget deficit under control is a critical factor in economic stability and a prerequisite to achieving high and sustainable economic growth. The main question of the present study was what are the roots of the constant economic policy that resulted in the government budget deficit in Post-Islamic Revolution of Iran. The hypothesis of the study, based on the historical institutionalism approach, Is that the constant economic policy leading to budget deficit was rooted in the monticore model of state-society relationships – i.e., a combination of ideological and election relations, leads to a continuous increase in government expenses. Therefore, in order to overcome this situation, there needs to be a change in the nature of the state and its unique pattern of relations with society.

According to available reports, people with disabilities include 15% of the world's population. However, this group experiences discriminatory behaviours in many different aspects. Therefore, they must receive special services called rehabilitation services in order to enjoy a high-quality and independent life. On the other hand, all aspects of human life that are somehow affected by the decisions of the government or non-governmental public institutions are relevant to public policy; rehabilitation is no exception to this rule. This study attempts to examine the level of coherence and correlation between policies concerning the rehabilitation of people with disabilities with good governance indicators noticed by several experts in social sciences and policymaking in recent decades, aiming to show that paying attention to these indicators and proper employment of them is a necessary condition for the success of related policies in this area. Using descriptive analysis and library approach, this study first identifies eight indicators for good governance. Then, reviewing the existing literature about the rehabilitation of people with disabilities and with regard to the eight identified indicators, this study attempts to focus on cases where the outcome has proved to be efficient and effective policy-making in the intended field of study. The findings of this article indicate the existence of a link and alignment between the paradigm of good governance and rehabilitation policies for people with disabilities, suggesting that policies based on these eight indicators will be more successful.

We employed the top-down policy implementation model of  Horn and Meter, from policymaking to the implementation stage we need to consider six components including standards and objectives, resources, inter-organizational communication and enforcement activities, characteristics of implementing agencies, economic, social and political conditions and the disposition of implementers.  In this research, we used a directed qualitative content analysis method based on semi-structured interviews with  elites in the field of anti-narcotics policy implementation. Then, we compared the results with the model of our research. According to the results of our study, 13 deviances are identified as follows: executors not prioritising anti-narcotic actions, confliction and multiplicity of policy objectives, lack of an index for success evaluation, the disproportion between objectives and standards, resources mismanagement, Structural inconsistencies in the implementation stage, Systematic disregard for science and practice, Institutional and social turmoil, Polyphony and lack of strong organizational authority, implementers disbelief, lack of monitoring and accountability, insistence on quick-response measures and inability in prioritisation.

The security threats linkage policy is part of the signs of establishing security by regional and extra-regional actors aimed at limiting Iran’s power. In this process, the security roles of such countries as Israel, Great Britain and the United States in organizing the linkage of strategic and tactical threats against Iran can be seen. The main question raised by this paper is: “What are the features of the policy of linkage of security threats against Iran and how does it affect Iran’s security and regional situation?” The hypothesis of the paper is: “The policy of linkage of security threats against Iran is on the basis of such factors as coalitionism, expanding regional economic cooperation, and geopolitical movements from Southwest Asia to South Caucasus.” The security consortium for restricting Iranian regional power has attempted to lay the foundations for creating the geopolitical triangle of “Turkey, Azerbaijan and Israel”, thus paving the way for a step-by-step blockade and restriction of Iranian tactical power in the regional environment. The theory of balance of threat was used for the purpose of writing this paper. Note must be taken that such types of policy are based on a specific alliance formation by the actors that feel common and fairly similar threats.

States use criminal policymaking to solve various public issues. Criminal policymaking without problem identification will end up in failure. If a solution is designed before conducting problem analysis, considerable waste of financial and human resources can incur for solving a nonsignificant problem or a non-problem. Regardless of the criminal policy system model, by using some criteria we can analyze the criminal policy-making system’s condition in terms of problem-oriented consideration to understand the system’s weaknesses for policy change. Problem-oriented criminal policymaking requires a commitment to substantive and procedural essentials. In this article, through a descriptive-prescriptive approach and based on library resources a general framework for a criminal policy-making system is proposed. Substantively, the type of evidence used in the policy process based on the “hierarchy of evidence”, and procedurally, the separation between policy analysis and drafting stages in the policy cycle are considered essential for a problem-oriented criminal policymaking, used here to present a framework for criminal policy analysis from a problem-oriented perspective.

Fake news has become a global problem on the one hand and a serious restriction on freedom of expression on the other hand. The works of fake news have threatened the right to freedom of expression and political participation in societies. The United Nations has taken measures and the European Union has first defined fake news and made policies and regulations based on it to overcome the news threats. These actions are not without problems; Because it interferes with the rules that guarantee freedom of speech as a fundamental freedom. By reviewing the existing laws and policies and analyzing the actions taken to fight fake news at the UN and EU level, this article concludes that the continuation of this process may lead to excessive censorship and, as a result, the violation of freedom of expression; Therefore, it is necessary to balance the border between fake news and lies within the framework of freedom of expression with a realistic view. In this article, how to legally and effectively deal with fake news is analytically researched by examining the documents, regulations of the United Nations and the European Union, and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights.

Security is the most important component in the political authority of governments and the cyber world violates it by acknowledging its valuable achievements. Therefore, developing an effective preventive criminal policy against cyber security violation is so important that neglecting it can cause the criminal system to face irreparable challenges. Despite the approval of the international document on cyber security, this paper, using the method of document analysis and a descriptive analytical method, seeks to read the strategies of Iran's cyber security order in the upstream laws and documents and examine the state of social preventive criminal policy in the laws of other countries. It seems that criminal policymaking in Iran can play a significant role, especially in the field of social preventive measures against cyber security violations. In this way, different countries have adopted several security approaches to prevent cyber security violations. Based on the findings of this research, although Iran has considered different strategies in strengthening the security foundations of cyber encounters, due to the lack of appropriate differential policy, it has not yet succeeded in adopting centralized social preventive mechanisms and efficiency in preventing cyber security violations has not been considered and the measures applied are often non-technical in nature, such as training and promotion of digital Knowledge.

Big data belongs to the newfound technologies by high applicability in economy and governance and this has caused countries to pave the way for using it as best as possible with policies in this field. The current research, using the analytical problem-solving approach and using the in-depth semi-structured interview method with stakeholders, examines the system of big data policy issues in Iran in seven political, legal, economic, social, security, educational and technological dimensions. The result of the analysis of the issues indicates that the greatest variety of big data policy issues are in the political and technological dimensions, the emphasis is on economic, social and legal issues, and the two security and educational sectors are less reflected than other issues. By combining the frequently listed issues, the main problem of big data policy in Iran can be considered as the lack of soft and hard policy and governance mechanisms to deal with the big data field in a way that is clear, predictable, comprehensive and practical.

The 5-year plans of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not evaluable. Despite varied reasons for the non-implementation of plans, the way they were formulated played a significant role. Evaluability in policy formulation requires regular structuring of policy levels, clear objectives, measurable indicators, evaluable tasks, clear responsibilities, and a chapter dedicated to evaluation rules. With the abovementioned features, it will be possible to analyze the reality of the plan before approval, monitor the progress of the plan clause-by-clause during execution, and conduct an evaluation of the plan’s implementation thoroughly. Based on the evaluation process, in addition to generating transparent data from the execution, the evaluation of the responsible institutions, as public demand, will also be possible, and it will create a set of data that will provide a good guide for the following 5-year plans. This article offers specific recommendations for the evaluable formulation of the plans based on the policy evaluation literature and the experiences of the previous plans.