STRATEGIC STUDIES QUARTERLY
Year:2019 | Volume:21 | Issue:4 (82) |Papers Count:8

Many experts believe that transparency, greater access to information, and better flow of information help increase the accountability of governments and state officials and eventually help stem corruption and improve governance, which leads to an establishment's sustainability. In recent years, things such as unjustifiably high salaries and benefits, unjustifiable provision of properties and extra benefits at municipalities, the manner in which government-subsidized foreign currency is provided to importers of goods, etc are an indication of not-so-transparent processes, which are the result of lack of transparent information and flawed performance of supervisory organizations. This article discusses the important role of free access to information in improving the efficiency of governance and demonstrates that access to information in Iran is not as it should be and that supervisory organizations face a conflict and multiplicity of responsibilities. It also puts forward some proposals that could help improve information dissemination and supervisory structures in the country.

Putting managers with political affiliations in charge of state organizations have both pros and cons for policy makers. Appointment of administrative and executive managers in order to ensure political commitment to the defined strategies with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the executive system on the one hand and rapid emergence of politicization that leads to reduced efficiency of the executive system on the other hand have exposed serious contradictions in the country's administrative affairs. Using inductive reasoning and a data-based approach as well as interviews and secondary sources, this article attempts to investigate the link between the political commitment of the establishment's administrative staff and the efficiency of the political system as well as the negative implications of politicization for the efficiency of the executive system. The main question asked in this article is what the implications of politicization of the country's executive system are for its efficiency. However, we should first provide an answer to this question: How do political appointments affect the efficiency of the political system?

This article studies four sets of variables in the fields of "demography" (population rate, percentage of urban population, unemployment rate), "policy making" (volume of resources and oil production, GDP, the country's ranking in human development indexes), "social services" (average age of students and duration of education, share of health in GDP, Internet access), and "economic situation" (economic freedom). It intends to compare these variables in the Islamic Republic of Iran with those in two regions with similar civilizations and cultures, including countries in Central Asia and Southwest Asia. The findings of this study, which are based on international reports, show that the approach to social justice plays a considerable and decisive role in determining the efficiency or inefficiency of the political system in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Judicial efficiency have both spiritual and material aspects. The spiritual aspect concerns the prevailing sense of justice and the widely held belief that the judicial system holds everyone accountable for their behavior and decisions. This requires that the Judiciary acts independently, impartially, and based on law. From the material perspective, judicial efficiency is determined by the competence of the majority of judges who are not in a hierarchy and address issues and disagreements based on their knowledge, expertise, great skills, and their own discretion.

Drawing on the "representation" theory in the sociology of art and the explanatory model proposed by French sociologist Pierre Fé lix Bourdieu, this article seeks to investigate the process of reconstructing the concept of the 1980s in the lifestyle re-presented in the top-selling movies of the 21st century. The main question asked in this article is whether the representation of the lifestyle in the 1980s in 21st century movies is in line with the Islamic Republic's discourse or not. Content analysis of some of the films produced in the modern era shows that the cultural consumption and the way the 1980s lifestyle has been portrayed in the 21st century movies have been mainly inconsistent with revolutionary values. In fact, the 1980s has been painted as a "ridiculous", "shameful" and "bygone" era in today's cinema.

Archaism as a gradual and growing phenomenon in Iranian society have cultural, political, historical, and security implications. This articles seeks to answer how this phenomenon will impact the cultural-political security of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The authors argue that the Aryan archaism discourse is different than citizen-centered nationalism and can lead to a chaotic political-cultural structure. The reason is archaism discourse is an "interpretive reaction" and a "structure-breaking narrative", which provides a platform for delegitimization and identify reassessment through "framework building", "historicism" and "representation" and poses a threat to socio-political coherence and stability through promoting "resistance identity" and "heterotrophism".

Regional developments, particularly after the Arab Spring, emergence of new crises including in Syria and Iraq, the rise of Daesh terrorists, the weakening of governments, and subsequent redefinition of the roles of regional and extra-regional actors to fill the power vacuum have rendered the need to devise a new strategy in Iran's foreign policy inevitable— a strategy that is capable of adapting to a rapidly changing environment in the region. The main assumption of this article is that the two principles of strengthening "regional cooperation" and "deterring threats from the region" (in terms of both soft and hard warfare) should be kept in balance under the new circumstances so that Iran's status can be maintained in the regional balance of power. Accordingly, the author believes that the need to gradually combine the two existing foreign policy strategies and to introduce a third strategy— referred to here as "a strong from inside Iran"— is inevitable.