POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE
Year:2014 | Volume:10 | Issue:2 (20)|Papers Count:7

This paper is an analytical exploratory study which applies institutional method to propose a model for the improvement of the public policy evaluation applicable to the political administrative system of Iran.A systemic-holistic view was employed to organize this model; moreover, by adopting the model proposed by Hawlett and Ramesh three fields are defined that include as follows: people and civil institutions-oriented, law violation-oriented and the quantity and quality of the policies’ achievement and results-oriented. It also organizes macro-institutes that are related to these three fields and defines their functions and duties in line with The Constitution of Iran. The model of public policy evaluation system proposed in this paper includes grand policies, legislative policies and functional policies (i.e. the state’s plans and programs) on a national scale.Our proposed system includes different types of evaluation reports, their time frames, administrators, executors and evaluation methods. Nine policy evaluation reports are the output of this system which ought to be publicly published. Our proposed model of the public policy evaluation system highlights the application of non-governmental private and public sections and the avoidance of the organizational development of evaluative institutes.

Development Plans have always played an important role in the development of societies; in practice, one of the requirements of development is targeted, comprehensive and detailed planning which guides the social structure of the country away from political problems and clichés or the change of governments. Iran, among other developing countries, has an old record of devising and implementing medium-term development plans; however most of the objectives of the development plans are not fulfilled and practically the opportunity for social dynamism and mobility has not been created. The planners of development programmes claim that by implementing the development plans, an economic revolution and enormous political changes would be achieved in social system. Having this claim, the failure in achieving objectives of the development plans are attributed to the deficiencies in their implementation and the non-compliance of the executives of the plans. This is while there are different causes leading to the non-realization of the objectives of the development plans, among which the weakness of the structure of development plans specifically within the aspects of their protection by sanctions, feasibility study, and nonexistence of institutionalized requirements for monitoring and control are considered less than others. Emphasizing on the two abovementioned factors, in this paper we will examine the requirements which opens up the possibility of monitoring and controlling the development plans.

Politics that is the area of managing society, and makes the practical rules of political relationships among social forces regulated, can be evaluated from different points of view in terms of categories, groups and casts. Among them, students are as a social force that their points of view regarding politics and the relative matters are important to survey. In addition, it seems that the learners of different fields of study, practically and theoretically, have different attitudes towards politics. In fact, the differences available among human and natural sciences, in respect of their methods and matters, and also their environments and studied phenomena, affect the student political attitude. This research that has been done by survey method and questionnaire tool upon 264 students of Tehran university (based on Morgan table), and based on multi-stage cluster method, shows that there is a relationship between the different university fields of study (engineering, medical sciences, literary and art sciences) and their political attitudes (political attitude aspects: political participation, political legitimacy, political identity, political tendency towards political wings and political power). In other words, the human science students differ in political attitudes in comparison with other groups of students regarding their field of study. Upon the research findings, the validation of this hypothesis is resulted from this point that the human science students differ in three aspects of political attitudes- political participation, their political tendency towards political wings, and political identity- in comparison with other groups of student field of study. And it also shows that there is no meaningful relationship regarding other two aspects.

After the Iranian revolution in 1979, the fledgling government of the Islamic Republic intended to lay the foundation of its limitations based on Islamic teachings and this has necessitated a path which can provide for a compromise between Islamic teachings on the one hand, and the limitations imposed on the government including international relations, which are structured in the framework of foreign policy, on the other. The path needs to be effective in eliminating the interference which a foreign policy that accepts limitations faces in its interactions with the international system. This means that a foreign policy that observes limitations has two options. One is being passive and dissolved in the hegemonic discourse and obtaining a proper share. The second choice is entering the otherness-making process and initiating ascription of meaning and application of it taken from epistemology and special ontology. Response to this important issue triggered the consideration of a factor that is unique in concept but diverse in examples. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, expediency and expediently-oriented action advanced to the extent that, in many cases, it practically achieved a special place in the hegemonic discourse including foreign policy. On this ground, decision-makers about foreign policy benefitted from the hegemonic discourse of their own thought and intended to bring a particular meaning to different issues and it is clear that different understanding (diagnosis) results in different action (prescription). This is noticeable in diverse understanding and acts which are based on expediency.This study is an attempt to delineate a comparative ground which defines the limitations of a framework that leads to discursive simulation of expediency (theoretical framework) in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s foreign policy. This is the one path that gives rise to a single voice of collective wisdom, which is the result of common understanding and single prescription (justified consensus). With the right understanding and application of this framework in foreign policy, we can achieve a single discourse which reflects a single voice. This voice is capable of including elements such as wisdom and esteem which are the basis for a satisfaction that is accomplished upon common understanding and justified consensus.

Branding nations by capitalist means of marketing is a new phenomenon and a public policy strategy, aimed to sell new images of cities, countries and regions to the world. Israel has been ranked quite negatively in the Roper Nation Brands Index in the several years because of wars against the Palestinian and Lebanese people. Anti-Israel campaigns around the world have also contributed to this negative image. There is a conflict on branding Israel in the world. This paper takes “country image theory” to show how the conflict on making image of Israel is taking shape. Country image is “the sum of people’s beliefs, ideas and impressions about a certain country” (Kotler, 1993, p.141). The article concludes that nation branding which is relatively a new and successful method in marketing nations has been challenging for Israel. Certain concepts are promoted through pro (IDC Herzliya) and anti-Israel (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement) branding process which are extracted by qualitative content analysis. The article concludes that Israel branding is a continual process conducted by the new communication tools, especially social networks and reflection of economics in meaning. The pro-Israel branding has not been successful to represent itself separate from news that comes out of Israel and despite touristic, scientific and cultural attractions, Israel's branding faces serious challenges especially during the times of conflict.

Political participation in elections is an important component of the political regime is very important. Theorists of development, political participation, especially participation in the election of the most important indicators of political development know. Political development without political participation makes no sense, or at least in terms of content is not complete. Mass media, including the press, along with political parties, interest groups, social classes, and trade unions... Effective role in the political socialization and political participation, and directly or indirectly to bring news and political information, introduce and promote the values and political goals of their own society than political values with the values of other societies, discussion and discuss the positions of the government and other nations to participate in politics is possible. This study aimed to investigate the role of local media in Kerman on political participation in the Eleventh presidential elections. In this descriptive science research, data collection method in theory and in practice, using a questionnaire Ktabkhanh Ay and in the survey. The population of 392 people that analysis was performed using SPSS software. and political participation were the subjects affected by factors and other variables except the local press publications and has been the subject of this study.