https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/ Iranian Journal of Public Policy en daily 1 Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0330 Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0330 https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106366.html Gasoline pricing in Iran has long been a site of conflicting policy narratives, rendering its transformation irreducible to merely technical or economic explanations. This study, grounded in the Narrative Policy Framework, investigates the question: “Which policy narratives shaped policymakers’ mindsets during the adoption of two contradictory laws in 2004 & 2005, and how did these narratives steer policy change?” Employing a qualitative approach and inductive thematic analysis, the research analyzes parliamentary debates from the Sixth and Seventh Islamic Consultative Assemblies. The findings reveal that in the Sixth Parliament, the dominant narrative framed gasoline as an intergenerational asset with market-based pricing, whereas in the Seventh Parliament, a new narrative emerged emphasizing administrative price control to protect public welfare. This narrative shift not only redefined the logic of pricing but also reshaped the meaning of justice and the role of the state in energy policy. The study demonstrates that narrative analysis provides a powerful lens for explaining why and how policy change occurs within Iran’s policy subsystem. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106367.html In recent decades, with the shift from interventionist government to regulatory state, regulatory authorities have emerged as key actors in governance. A core feature of these institutions is their de facto independence in formulating and implementing their preferences without undue influence or dependence on other actors, including policymakers, parallel regulators, and regulatees. This study aims to assess the level of de facto independence of the Communications Regulatory Authority in three domains: communications, radio frequency spectrum, and postal services. The research employs social network analysis and is based on data collected through expert-completed questionnaires and the analysis of actor influence matrices. The findings indicate that the regulator does not enjoy full independence in any of the three areas; however, it is relatively more independent in the radio spectrum domain and more dependent in the postal sector. The results underscore the need to strengthen institutional mechanisms to enhance the operational autonomy of the regulatory body. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106368.html Border terminals, as gateways to international trade, hold a strategic position in trade policy and economic development. Using a grounded theory approach and relying on thematic analysis of field data and interviews with operational and academic experts, this study examines the mechanisms influencing fleet delays at the country’s road border crossings. The findings indicate that a combination of causal factors such as infrastructural deficiencies, procedural centralization, limited human resources, and neighbor states’ agency contextual factors including fragmented and overlapping regulations and socio‑cultural characteristics, and intervening factors like management quality and technological gaps, intensify institutional disharmony and reduce operational efficiency. The derived model explains the interrelations and impacts of these factors on fleet stoppage time. Based on this model, strategies such as establishing integrated border management, modernizing digital infrastructure, and redesigning institutional mapping are proposed, aiming to enhance institutional cohesion, reduce delays, and strengthen the competitive capacity of road border terminals. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106372.html The aim of this study is to design a conceptual model for preventing stubborn policy-making in Iran’s governance system. Stubbornness in policy-making refers to policymakers’ insistence on continuing decisions whose ineffectiveness has been revealed despite contradictory evidence and negative feedback. Such an approach leads to consequences such as resource waste, decline of public trust, and weakened governance effectiveness. This research adopted a developmental–applied orientation and employed a mixed-methods approach. In the qualitative phase, thematic analysis of interviews with 20 academic and executive experts was used to extract the initial dimensions and indicators of the model. In the quantitative phase, a three-round Delphi method was applied to achieve expert consensus. The findings identified five main dimensions—recognition of policymakers’ biases and stubbornness, evaluation and analysis of data and evidence, policy flexibility and revision, consultation and dialogue, and transparency and accountability—as the key components of avoiding stubborn policy-making (the core category). Kendall’s coefficient of concordance at the end of the third Delphi round was 0.76, indicating a high level of agreement among experts. The results demonstrate that preventing stubborn policy-making requires not only reforming policymakers’ individual behaviors, but also establishing institutional, evidence-based, and participatory mechanisms. The proposed model can serve as an operational framework to enhance the effectiveness, legitimacy, and sustainability of policies in Iran’s governance system. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106373.html Values constitute the foundation of all public policy. A phenomenon is recognized as a “public ‎issue” only when the values of society are perceived to be at risk. Accordingly, values play a ‎decisive role in shaping the orientation and substance of policies. In its ideal form, criminal ‎policy functions as a direct reflection of the dominant societal value system, with “guiding ‎values” determining strategic directions. Without a coherent and well-structured articulation of ‎these values, achieving an effective and desirable criminal policy becomes unattainable. Adopting a descriptive-analytical approach, this article distinguishes between “ideological ‎policymaking” and policymaking grounded in a particular school of thought or ideology. It ‎then defines the concept of values and outlines the value system governing the Iranian legal ‎order, with an emphasis on its integration with Islamic legal and moral principles. Finally, ‎through an interpretive lens on social phenomena, the article examines the place of values and ‎the criteria by which they intervene in the cycle of criminal policymaking. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106374.html Today, artificial intelligence has played a role in the pre-production process to the release and in the management of intellectual property rights of cinematic works. Artificial intelligence can also help in monitoring the infringement of copyrights of cinematic works. These important aspects of the interaction of artificial intelligence and intellectual property related to cinematic works lead us to look into the issue of how artificial intelligence can participate in the management of rights of cinematic works? The present article uses an analytical-descriptive method and finally concludes that the possibility of copyright infringement in the process of creating works based on artificial intelligence is serious; therefore, collective management organizations can, as an active actor in future policymaking, monitor the market, issue exploitation licenses to train systems based on machine learning, and receive contractual compensation. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106375.html The rapid advancement of emerging technologies—particularly AI and big data analytics—has profoundly transformed traditional structures of representative democracy. Political parties, long serving as intermediaries between citizens and governments, now face the rise of "cyber parties," compelling them to redefine their roles. This study examines how AI reshapes political representation and the role of cyber parties in fostering new models of political participation. It investigates how data-driven technologies challenge conventional notions of representation and explores cyber parties' influence in this process. The hypothesis posits that these technologies, by enabling direct citizen-state engagement and diminishing traditional parties' mediation, create a more transparent, agile, and data-informed model of representation. Findings suggest cyber parties leverage AI to predict voter behavior and tailor policies to real-time data, potentially enhancing democratic efficiency and legitimacy. However, risks include data platform monopolization, privacy violations, and marginalization of minority voices. Redefining representation in the data era demands revising democratic norms alongside algorithmic oversight and digital literacy mechanisms https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106376.html This article aims to examine the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in policymaking in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Singapore. As AI gains increasing importance in global policymaking, Southeast Asian countries have taken significant steps toward adopting and utilizing this technology extensively, to the extent that the expansion of AI has had a notable impact on the economies and societies of ASEAN member states. Among the countries in this region, Singapore stands out as the most advanced in leveraging the capabilities of AI. Therefore, the main question of this article is: What is the position of AI in Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore? This article hypothesizes that the ASEAN region is among the first in the world to integrate AI into all aspects of societal life, and AI holds a very prominent position in the countries of this region, especially Singapore. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106377.html Ethical policymaking in the field of science and technology (S&T) requires a comprehensive understanding of the scientific and technological consequences and a systematic recognition of the related ethical issues. Despite references to ethical dimensions in previous studies, their systematic integration into a coherent S&T policymaking framework has received limited attention. Addressing this gap, the present study develops a normative-analytical framework for ethical S&T policymaking. In the first stage, 29 ethical components were identified through a library-based study and content analysis of scholarly texts in the fields of meta-ethics, normative ethics, S&T ethics, and policy ethics. Using thematic analysis, these components were integrated into five key stages of policymaking: problem identification, information gathering, formulation, implementation, and evaluation. To demonstrate the practical application of the framework and enhance policymakers’ understanding of its use, a survey was conducted among 41 experts and stakeholders involved in formulating Iran’s Comprehensive Scientific Map (CSM). The findings revealed that components such as problem analysis, systematic research, and cultural values were relatively well addressed, whereas participatory technology assessment, ethical advisory mechanisms, and institutional accountability were less considered. These results confirm the applicability of the proposed framework and can contribute to improving transparency, accountability, and ethical orientation in S&T policymaking. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106378.html The study of successful governance models in non-Western countries, especially those that have implemented economic development without fully following the prevailing models, has become increasingly important. The United Arab Emirates is a prominent example in this regard, which has taken a different path in governance by relying on a strong political structure, a local federal political system, internal stability and strategic structuring. This article uses the theory of Developmental Governance to analyze Emirati governance and how it adapts to this theory. The findings show that governance in the UAE is consistent with the six principles of this theory, namely problem-solving management, political consensus, corruption management, grassroots governance, strengthening institutions within a pragmatic approach, and finally commitment, coordination, and cooperation; however, there are challenges in the principle of political consensus (in terms of the entry of new actors) and in the principle of strengthening institutions within a pragmatic approach (in terms of the rule of law). The present article is of a fundamental type and the research method used in it is case matching with theory, which uses the approach of document analysis and library studies to examine the main objective of the research. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106379.html What factors have contributed to increasing Saudi Arabia's willingness to normalize relations with Iran? What is the outlook and what strategies are in place to maintain and strengthen it? study argues that a combination of three variables- uncertainty due to shifts in the international order, domestic policy considerations of the new Saudi government (s preserving the political system under the new leadership, diversifying the economy, and strengthening social support for emerging populations), and the pragmatism of the new Saudi leadership - has favoured the adoption of a strategic hedging approach to foreign policy. An important pillar of this strategy was the de-escalation of tensions and the normalization of relations with Iran. The research findings also suggest that the normalization process between Iran and Saudi Arabia is still in its infancy and its long-term sustainability requires the building of trust- or at least the application of a constructive conflict resolution model- while managing the impact of internal and external shocks. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106380.html Digital transformation in higher education is an unavoidable necessity, yet the role of governments and public policies has been insufficiently addressed. Applying existing policy models in isolation proves inadequate for responding to the distinct challenges of digital transformation. This study seeks to integrate and adapt public policy models to the higher education context. Employing a meta-synthesis and meta-ethnographic approach, based on Noblit and Hare’s seven-step framework, 20 models were synthesized through three stages: reciprocal translation, refutational synthesis, and line-of-argument translation. The outcome is a six-stage meta-model comprising: (1) defining the context and stakeholders, (2) refining the problem and objectives, (3) analyzing evidence and data frameworks, (4) developing options and scenarios, (5) selecting options with stakeholder engagement, and (6) implementation with monitoring. By drawing on diverse international experiences, the study proposes a coherent and flexible meta-framework that addresses a critical gap in policy literature and supports both adaptive policymaking and the use of qualitative data for validation. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106381.html The present study was conducted to present a model of policy requirements for artificial intelligence governance in higher education. For this purpose, a qualitative approach and the Sandelowski and Barroso (2007) meta-synthesis method were used. Among the scientific documents available in scientific databases from 2020 to June 2025, 24 scientific documents were selected and analyzed. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the findings. To ensure quality control of the research findings, descriptive and interpretive validity were examined. According to the results, the model of artificial intelligence governance in higher education includes educational-research policy requirements (educational policy and research policy), ethical policy requirements (transparency and value-based policy, justice-oriented policy, responsibility and accountability policy), technological policy requirements (adaptive policy, technical support policy, acceptance and promotion policy, protective and risk policy), functional policy requirements (coherence and integration policy, supervisory policy), and communicative policy requirements (networking policy and participatory policy). https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106382.html In recent years, behavioral policymaking has emerged as a pivotal tool for guiding choices and enhancing the effectiveness of public policies. Despite the widespread application of nudges across diverse domains, fundamental questions remain regarding their actual effectiveness and social acceptability. Drawing on the Think–Feel–Do triad, this study employs a review method to examine behavioral interventions and reveals a significant gap between their effectiveness and public acceptance. Evidence from recent studies shows that cognitive nudges enjoy the highest level of social acceptability but the lowest effectiveness, whereas behavioral nudges demonstrate the strongest effectiveness yet face the weakest public support; Affective nudges occupy a middle ground. Complementary models such as the SHIFT framework are shown to offer promising pathways for narrowing this gap and promoting sustainable behavior change. The findings highlight the need for context-sensitive, transparent, and hybrid behavioral policies that can balance effectiveness with social legitimacy. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106383.html In the present era, due to the limitations of human cognitive capacity, complexity, uncertainty, and dynamics of social environments, unintended consequences have overshadowed public policies and challenged governance more than ever. This is while policy scholars have not addressed this concept in a coherent manner, and the research literature in this field is unable to explain the what, why, and how of this concept. Therefore, the present study seeks to create new insights in this field by identifying and understanding the conceptual structures of unintended consequences of public policies in the existing literature, and synthesizing them. To achieve this goal, after a systematic literature review and content analysis of selected studies, a conceptual framework of unintended consequences of public policies was obtained, based on four conceptual structures: conceptualization, factors of creation, evaluation, and factors of avoidance/reduction. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106384.html This study aims to examine the nature of the macro-level tourism policymaking approach of the Islamic Republic of Iran in upstream documents over the years 1989 to 2024. The main focus is to identify the dominant discourse preference between two prevailing approaches — the cultural-protective approach and the economic-development-oriented approach. To this end, a directed qualitative content analysis method was employed to analyze 18 key documents, including general policies, development plans, and sectoral documents. Content analysis using Maxqda software resulted in the extraction of 115 codes, which were classified into three main approaches: cultural (46%), economic (41%), and integrated (13%). The findings indicate that the cultural discourse — emphasizing identity preservation, heritage, development of religious and pilgrimage tourism, support for handicrafts and traditional arts, and promotion and education of public culture — dominates over the economic approach. The economic approach is primarily expressed through concepts such as strengthening tourism infrastructure and facilities, supportive policies and financial incentives, and specialized and regional development. Notably, the integrated discourse has a small share, and there is a significant decline in attention to tourism in the approved documents of the 2020s compared to the 2000s. Compared to prior literature, the results support interpretations highlighting the dominance of the cultural perspective, lack of cohesion in policy formulation, and neglect of economic-cultural linkages in Iran’s tourism policymaking. This study, by emphasizing the discourse gap among documents, stresses the necessity of designing a coherent, multidimensional, and cross-sectoral framework for tourism policymaking—one that synergistically integrates cultural values with the economic requirements of sustainable development. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106385.html The present study compares population policies in three countries: Sweden, Finland, and Norway, emphasising the role of culture. The necessity for research is driven by the issue of population decline in Iran and the failure to achieve replacement rates, which necessitates the study of successful policies. Nevertheless, the mere study of policies is insufficient. The fundamental question pertains to the identification of both similarities and differences in population policy in these countries, as well as the cultural origins (informal institutions) of path dependency in formulating these policies. A comparative methodology was employed, encompassing the analysis of pertinent official documents in the theoretical framework of New Institutional Economics. The results indicated that the policymaking process in all three countries is influenced by shared cultural values, particularly "gender equality" and"universalism". However, a distinction emerged in the emphasis placed on specific values: namely, Sweden emphasised collectivism and equality, Finland emphasised choice and family orientation, and Norway emphasised pragmatism and balance. The policies have been shown to reduce the opportunity cost of childbearing, thus contributing to an increase in female employment and an enhancement of work-family balance. The findings emphasise the importance of culture and stakeholder participation in effective policymaking in Iran. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_105781.html The present study was conducted with the aim of analyzing the discourse order governing the skill-based higher education system of the Islamic Republic of Iran and how educational policies are articulated in this discourse. Educational policies within this discourse are divided into three time periods from 1978 to the present, in which in each period, the skill-based higher education discourse has attempted to establish its meaning with the help of relevant educational policies. The articulation of the aforementioned discourse was analyzed and examined in the historical context of the challenges of educational-developmental policymaking. The findings of the study show that the skill-based higher education discourse in the Islamic Republic of Iran is articulated around the central signifier of “applied Islamic education” and signifiers such as “resistance skills”, “negation of non-practical knowledge”, “skill privatization”, “entrepreneurial university” and “practical cultural confrontation” are organized around this central signifier. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_105903.html The new generation in contemporary Iran faces identity challenges shaped by dual-space life, including fluid and diverse identities, value conflicts, global cultural influence, and weakening ties to national and religious values. These trends result in weakened family and religion, wider generational gaps, behavioral and psychological issues, academic decline, cultural laxity, and threats to social cohesion. Using a qualitative method and thematic analysis, this study reviewed related literature and conducted semi-structured expert interviews. Twenty-four strategies were identified and refined through expert panels based on effectiveness, speed of impact, scope, feasibility of cooperation, and institutional alignment. Seven key strategies were prioritized: future-oriented parenting in the digital sphere, redesigning adolescent identity governance, developing identity-shaping media content, fostering cultural-social engagement, religious identity formation in the adolescent lifeworld, identity-building through experiential and educational interaction, and narrating identity within education and the ideal of progress. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106162.html This research aimed to analyze the process of school privatization policy in Iran. Data were collected through document analysis and semi-structured interviews. First, documents were analyzed, then in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 experts in the field of education, and continued until theoretical saturation. The analyses were conducted using Brown and Clark's six-stage model. The findings showed that there are obvious shortcomings in the different stages of school privatization. In the first step, the main issue of this policy is stated to be improving quality and increasing the diversity of educational programs, but it seems that the main issue is leading to the. In the next step, ambiguity in educational ideology has caused a gap between the main actors and has been a serious obstacle to the effective participation of the private sector. Also, despite various mechanisms for implementing and evaluating the policy, these two basic stages of private schools has not been given to non-governmental schools and independent evaluators. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106516.html Mission oriented innovation policies define long term and measurable missions and use a policy mix in research, innovation, investment, regulation, and stakeholder participation to actively address grand challenges. Using document analysis, this study examines selected missions in the European Union and Iran, including the Cancer Mission, the Soil Deal and Carbon Neutral initiatives in the EU, and the Clean Air Program in Iran. The findings show that EU missions, with clear direction, central leadership, coherent coordination, continuous evaluation, feedback, portfolio management, and measurable sub goals, have achieved relatively high success. In contrast, Iran’s Clean Air mission, while supported by clear legal and strategic foundations, faces constraints in stakeholder engagement, cross sector coordination, monitoring, feedback, and portfolio management. Developing a national system for identifying and prioritizing grand challenges through mission based frameworks with clear performance indicators and feedback mechanisms is therefore essential. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106570.html Public policymaking in Iran has long suffered from inefficiencies rooted in linear, centralized, and non-participatory approaches. These shortcomings are particularly evident in higher education, where a persistent gap exists between policy design and implementation. In response, policy labs have emerged as innovative instruments of participatory governance, enabling problem redefinition and the co-creation of solutions. This study analyzes the case of the Policy Lab at the National Research Institute for Science Policy (NRISP). Using an integrated framework combining the policy cycle with the REACT model and applying narrative analysis, the paper examines the lab's intervention mechanisms in revising faculty promotion regulations. Findings indicate that the lab functions as an intermediary institution through facilitation, knowledge synthesis, dialogue-building, persuasion, consensus, and networking, thereby bridging the design–implementation gap and enhancing policy throughput legitimacy. The study highlights the necessity of institutional support and formal integration of policy labs into the policy cycle, offering a context-sensitive model for strengthening policymaking resilience in Iran's higher education sector. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106660.html In arid and semi-arid regions, the water crisis has become a serious challenge in resource management. This research, using a comparative approach, examines water governance in two basins: Lake Urmia in Iran and the Murray–Darling Basin in Australia, based on Ostrom's polycentric framework. The aim is to analyze the role of institutional structures, organizational autonomy, policy flexibility, and the extent of social participation in the success or failure of water resource restoration. The results show that in Australia, the presence of independent institutions, effective stakeholder participation, and flexible policy mechanisms have led to resource recovery and a reduction in environmental crises. In contrast, centralized governance and weak regulatory institutions in Iran have resulted in the continuation of the crisis and the failure to restore Lake Urmia. This study emphasizes the necessity of establishing independent institutions, strengthening public participation, and developing tools such as water markets and environmental water allocations to improve water governance in Iran. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106707.html The cloud computing innovation ecosystem in Iran is not only a technical infrastructure, but also a living and self-organizing entity that has grown in an environment full of selective pressures and geopolitical constraints. This article aims to dissect the health of these ecosystems and use biological metaphors to measure the state of sustainability and resilience of this industry against the challenges ahead. The research tool was a researcher-made questionnaire based on the goal-question-measure model that measured the health of the ecosystems in the form of three macro-indices of “biopower”, “organization”, and “resilience” and 16 operational sub-indices. The originality of this research lies in the transition from linear perspectives to an organic understanding of the Iranian cloud industry. The findings confirm that for these ecosystems to flourish, there is a need to transition from “quantitative dynamic growth” to “structural resilience strength”. This study provides a practical framework for policymakers to prevent systemic disruptions at critical nodes by identifying system blind spots. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_106763.html این پژوهش باهدف شناسایی سیاست‌های موفق و ناموفق دوره پیش از ‌دبستان در یک قرن گذشته انجام شد. بدین منظور، با بهره‌گیری از رویکرد کیفی، ادراکات و دیدگاه‌های ۲۸ مشارکت‌کننده، از طریق نمونه‌گیری هدفمند گردآوری شد. تجزیه‌وتحلیل داده‌ها با استفاده از تحلیل محتوای کیفی نشان داد که سیاست‌های موفق شامل سیاست‌های ناظر بر ارتقای سلامت‌ کودکان، مشارکت شهرداری در راه‌اندازی فضاهای امن برای کودکان و تعاملات بین نهادی، فعالیت‌های فرهنگی کانون پرورش فکری، اقدامات سازمان بهزیستی، فعالیت‌های شورای کتاب کودک، تولیدات رسانه ملی، راه‌اندازی رشته‌های دانشگاهی مرتبط با کودک و ساختار غیرمتمرکز برنامه درسی بوده‌اند. در مقابل، سیاست‌های ناموفق شامل فقدان الزامات قانونی برای سرمایه‌گذاری مالی دولت، ناهماهنگی میان نهادها و سیاست‌گذاری‌های پراکنده، ضعف در کیفیت عوامل ساختاری و فرایندی آموزش، بی‌توجهی به آموزش والدین، کمبود مهدهای کودک دولتی در مناطق محروم، فقدان مداخلات زودهنگام و غیبت کودک در سیاست‌گذاری شهری بوده است. این یافته‌ها می‌توانند مبنایی برای طراحی چشم‌انداز تربیتی آینده در سازمان ملی تعلیم‌وتربیت کودک قرار گیرند. https://jppolicy.ut.ac.ir/article_107076.html The present study aims to identify and prioritize the factors influencing policy crowdsourcing and public participation to improve the policymaking process. This applied research follows a mixed-method approach. In the first stage, through meta-synthesis, domestic (1381–1402) and international (1969–2023) scientific documents were reviewed; from 972 identified documents, 75 were analyzed, producing 256 codes, 46 concepts, and 11 categories. In the second stage, a two-round fuzzy Delphi and expert opinions from two governmental organizations in Hormozgan province validated 17 concepts. In the third stage, using pairwise comparison questionnaires and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) among experts from three governmental organizations, the weights and priorities were determined. Results showed "ensuring security", "living conditions", and "valuing citizens" hold the highest importance. Findings indicate that the successful policy crowdsourcing requires attention to basic needs and creating a sense of security and trust in society. This result also shows the need to focus on infrastructure and macro-level policies to encourage future participation.