Economic Sociology
Reza Rahmati
Abstract
1- INTRODUCTIONTraditionally, oil has been mentioned as a commodity that has a distant relationship with development. Consedring the oil producing countries, especially the countries that converge with the Middle East region in terms of geographical, political and bio-economic conditions, shows that ...
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1- INTRODUCTIONTraditionally, oil has been mentioned as a commodity that has a distant relationship with development. Consedring the oil producing countries, especially the countries that converge with the Middle East region in terms of geographical, political and bio-economic conditions, shows that the relationship between oil on the one hand and the capabilities of the government on the other hand, there are in this area.It seems that a common denominator is that the government has been powerful in terms of control but weak in terms of political, economic and cultural capabilities. Regarding the reasons for underdevelopment in countries that have abundant resources, many perspectives and levels of analysis have been discussed; economic, political, social and even cultural reasons. Therefore, the view from the angle of political economy can be explanatory to a great extent.However, in some countries, oil is not only considered the main variable of underdevelopment, but also has become a part of the development process. Norway is one of the countries where oil has not been the only cause of backwardness, but in a systematic process, it has acted as an important part of the realities of the system based on public welfare and social services.The question that arises here is what caused Norway not to be captured by the mystery of "resource curse" and "Dutch disease"? In response to this question, the hypothesis of the research is that the institutional capabilities in Norway have led to the formation of a powerful government along with other institutional resources and these economic and political institutions are capable both in oil production and the allocation of oil revenues in the national budget and in the system. Their distribution shows a developed performance. 2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKThe important issue is the effects of the type of political systems and political institutions similar to the government on the levels and quality of the economy. In addition, according to Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, subsequently, the effects of political institutions or political alignments on economic relations cannot be hidden (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012).Therefore, economics as the science of understanding the optimal and productive human behavior is affected by politics and political processes, and politics as "authoritative allocation of values for a society" (Easton, 1957: 383-400), or "struggle over authority" (Lindblom, 1997) is affected by economic institutions. Therefore, the institution's role in both economy and politics is considered a central role. Institutions are defined from different perspectives and levels. Of course, the definition of institutions also suffers from the same plague that other concepts in human sciences suffer from; It means lack of consensus in the definition. 1. Institutions Among political economy thinkers, there is less consensus definition of institution, even among institutionalists, there is no single definition of institution, each thinker has chosen an independent definition of this concept based on his research flow or intellectual project. Some of them have defined institution as follows: a set of behavioral rules created by humans in order to manage and shape human interactions, which helps them to some extent, expectations from have the actions of others (North, 1990).One of the most utilitarian definitions of institution was provided by Hamilton, an institutional economist (Hamilton, 1932: 84). He considered the institution as "an intellectual or practical path regarding the prevalence and permanence of a certain group that is engraved in the group habits or customs of a people". This definition explains Veblen's previous definition of institution as "fixed habits of thought common to all human beings" (Veblen, 1919: 239).Or with the same interpretation of North, they are considered "the rules of the game in society or the limits invented by humans that shape human interaction" (North 1990: 3). 2. Development in the Attitude of InstitutionalismSome believe that institutionalism lacks a systematic core theory (Hodgson, 1998: 174) and therefore, institutionalism has a gradual view of categories similar to development, which means its lack of theoretical coherence.The lack of institutional resources causes the rule of law not to exist, or the rule of law suffers a systematic weakness. This is the reason why strong economic and political institutions lead to the formation of a strong and powerful government. Some researchers even argue that institutions can differentiate the quality of use of governance and even the quality of statecraft. Ideas similar to that oil causes the formation of rentierism. The rentier economy is a sick economy. Oil makes governments addicted to rents and they are the result of an understanding of the relationship between resources and development, which confirms that countries with rich resources are facing setbacks in terms of development.This idea follows that "institutions are weaker in countries with rich resources" (Van Der Ploeg, 2010).The starting point of this idea is, on the one hand, the theoretical formulations related to rentierism, and on the other hand, the empirical evidence regarding the underdevelopment of resource-rich states.Rich resources cause an increase in resources and capital accumulation by the government and ruling elites, an increase in resources causes political rulers to become economic investors, windfall resources make the government independent from all political and economic institutions, and the background It creates a big and fat government that intervenes in the public and private spheres. A big state not only does not provide the basis for the formation of economic and political institutions, but also becomes a political super-institution. The super-institution of the government takes the place of the government as an institution of institutions and an institution alongside other institutions. By taking over the system of extraction, production, distribution and redistribution, the government's super-institution has ordered the economy and this issue causes the creation of an institutional vicious circle. 3- METHODOLOGYThe current research is applied-developmental in terms of its purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of the researcher's approach. Documentary method was used to collect data and "grounded theory" method (institutionalist theory) was used to analyze them, which was introduced in the theoretical foundations section. 4- RESULTS & DISCUSSION 1. DemocracyAuthoritarianism means anything other than empowering the government. Authoritarianism means making rulers and political institutions unaccountable. They use the main sources of rent and the result of this use of rent sources is the monopoly of power in the hands of the governing body and the closure of economic and political processes. Ranked first in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2021 World Democracy Index, Norway has a very strong democracy. This country respects the civil liberties of its citizens and the government is held accountable by civil society actors and independent media. 2. Tax Based on development indicators, it seems that there is a relationship between development and a strong tax system (Besley & Persson, 2013: 110-51). Not relying on oil for distribution resources, and relying on a strong tax system, has led to the formation of a strong democracy in Norway. Chart number (1): Personal income tax in Norway (1995-2022) (Tranding Economics, 2023) 3. Social Welfare Social Progress Index (SPI) measures the level of social and environmental needs of citizens in countries. Fifty-four indicators in the field of basic human needs show the foundations of prosperity, the opportunity for progress and the relative performance of countries. This list is published by the nonprofit organization Social Progress Imperative and is based on writings by Amartya Sen, Douglass North, and Joseph Stiglitz (Economist Intelligence, 2013). The situation in Norway is at a tipping point. Norway, having a social-democratic government, has created a situation that has been placed in the first place in the social progress index in terms of social security measures. 4. Economic Freedom The economic freedom index is an annual index and ranking that was created in 1995 by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal to measure the level of economic freedom in the countries of the world. The creators of this index claim to have adopted an approach inspired by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations that "fundamental institutions that protect the freedoms of individuals to pursue their economic interests lead to greater prosperity for the larger society." They become" (Heritage, 2023a). The welfare states of the Nordic region are known as the states that follow the social-democratic-free market hybrid economy approach (Rahmati, 2020: 235-195). In fact, from an economic point of view, they are considered to be among the protectionist countries or the welfare state (the government that provides social and welfare services to the social classes). Norway rank is 10th among 45 countries in the European region. Norway's economy has registered an overall 2.9 points of economic freedom since 2017, with increased points for the rule of law. However, Norway's economy is still under pressure from excessive government spending (Heritage, 2023b). 5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONSThe existence of economic-political institutions is an important factor affecting the formation of democracy and its determining indicators. The formation of democratic political discourse in contrast to authoritarianism can cause greater accountability and transparency in the political system and the empowerment of strong social and political forces in the political environment.In this article, focusing on the subject of economic and political institutions, an attempt was made to examine economics and politics through the lens of institutional discourse. An attempt was made to examine the case study of Norway based on indicators obtained from institutional studies, hence indicators similar to democracy/authoritarianism, social welfare index (SPI), economic freedom index (EF), the tax index and the perception index of corruption were taken into consideration and analyzed accordingly in a comparative approach. Considering the effect of oil on the quality of the formation of institutions in Norway, it seems that the idea of resource curse and Dutch disease, which is one of the main factors of the underdevelopment of countries with abundant resources, has not happened in Norway.In Norway, oil is not only considered a factor of underdevelopment, but due to the formation of established economic institutions, it is also considered as a basis for looking to the future. Norway is an exception to the resource curse. This country is significantly different from the usual oil producer; both in the economy of oil production and in the allocation of revenues in the national budget.The presence of a powerful state along with various economic institutions, which are neither complicit nor forced by the government, has an impact on the Norwegian economy.
Economic Sociology
mostafa Mokhtari; Soroush Fathi; Mehrdad Navabakhsh
Abstract
1- INTRODUCTIONDevelopment has been the most important overall goal of people and societies in this era. Accordingly, development efforts in all societies have been among the main goals of countries. Also, development is a common global concern among many countries, and development should provide ...
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1- INTRODUCTIONDevelopment has been the most important overall goal of people and societies in this era. Accordingly, development efforts in all societies have been among the main goals of countries. Also, development is a common global concern among many countries, and development should provide a high quality of life and health of the population, preserve the environment, and also maintain a level of comfort and well-being suitable for the lives of citizens. The importance of development in developing countries is so much that trying to find the right way and method for its development and policy has become one of the most basic actions of countries and governments. Therefore, the correct policymaking of development programs is a new approach that planners are looking for today. Undoubtedly, in some countries, especially East Asian countries, their economic development has been the product of policy development. Development policies in different countries have been followed based on fundamental differences and generally do not follow a common pattern. consider development policies from individual and health aspects, consider prioritize the effectiveness of policies in focusing on marginal areas, and finally consider prioritize spatial planning. Although development policies in sensitive political areas have been influenced by economic necessities, how regional players and great powers compete. But the main reason for the success of development policies is due to the leading sectors that affect the process of these policies and development. Based on this, this research aims to look to the future and by using future research approaches, using the approach of identification and analysis the policy leading of Iran's development in the national sphere, to identify the policy accelerators of Iran's development by elites and experts. 2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKSince the beginning of development theories, various approaches have been proposed and there have been different development theories from the past until now. The first period of presenting development theories dates back to the years 1945 to 1970. In this period, development was considered as economic growth and equivalent to it. The basis of development writings is the modernization paradigm, which consider growth as a linear process. Therefore, planning to invest in the sectors that had a relative advantage, in order to increase the growth of the gross national product, was placed at the head of the affairs.The second period, which spans from 1970 to 1980, was formed through observation the ineffectiveness of development theories in the first period. The experience of countries showed that following the economic growth model to access development, although in some cases it led to an increase in GDP and rapid economic growth, but negative consequences such as increase in poverty, improper distribution of income, environmental pollution, growth of marginalization in the big cities of developing countries caused. This caused research to be carried out on development strategies and policies that pay attention to a more balanced distribution of development, so the social dimension of development, which was more focused on the proper and more humane distribution of economic growth achievements, was raised and the basic needs of humans were met in communities, poverty alleviation, equally distribution of income were raised as requirements for development. The third period coincides with the implementation of the economic adjustment program with the policies of the World Bank; Liberalizing trade, changing domestic prices to global prices, improving revenues through expanding tax bases and reforming taxes, reducing the government budget deficit by reducing public expenditures, especially subsidies, were among these reforms needed for development.The fourth period, which covers from 1980 to 1990, according to the experience of Southeast Asian countries, showed that the government can play a role as the main agent of development if appropriate economic policies are implemented. This approach, which is referred to as the post-development approach, is a school of thought that questions the idea of national economic development.Finally, since 1990, the development paradigms have shifted from their traditional foundations to two new approaches such as sustainable development and social development. The concept of sustainable development is based on the undeniable fact that ecological considerations can and should be applied in economic activities. An important development that took place in this school was that the school of sustainable development criticized many of the basic assumptions and concepts of most of the thinkers in this field of the basic principles of sustainable development in the field of the neoclassical economic paradigm. 3- METHODOLOGYThe method of conducting this qualitative research is a prospective study, which was carried out with the strategy of trend analysis and all the national trends governing the state of Iran's development policy by studying internal and external reports, including. The study of existing researches and theoretical literature and in-depth interviews and brainstorming sessions have been conducted and subjected to the criticism of experts and development policy activists in Iran. The statistical population of this research includes all development policy experts and activists in Iran who are experts and experts in development and policy making, 25 of whom have participated in the research process in the form of interviews and participation in brainstorming sessions. Data analysis was based on trend analysis of the type of leading. 4- RESULTS & DISCUSSIONIn this research, 25 important and fundamental leading items have been identified in 5 social, technological, economic, environmental and political fields. At the national level, 9 important social leading for the country's development policies have been identified, which include; Canceling cultural patronage, creating a common vision, national dialogue for development, attracting public participation, elimination poverty and inequality, social inclusion, population control policy, urban development policy, and changing the behavior of individual activists. Also, the national technological engines include 5 important engines. Independence of higher education institution, focus on education, expansion of science sovereignty, development of peaceful nuclear science and technology, and acceptance of technology. The economic leading items at the national level are the 3 important leading of monitoring and measuring development, canceling economic support and tourism for the development of Iran. But in the environmental field, four leading items are considerd: land use policies, adaptability and flexibility to climate changes, level of access to clean energy and prevention of industrial pollution. Finally, the political and governance leading items identified at the national level include 4 leading: development of horizontal criticism, thoughtful decision-making, strengthening of civil society and implementation of formulated policies. 5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONSThese leading are in different social, technical, economic, environmental and political fields, which exist in the order of the degree of influence of the sovereign political leading, environmental drivers, technological leading, economic leading and finally socio-cultural leading, but based on the degree importance in order: economic, technical, social, cultural and environmental issues and finally political drivers are given priority. Since the experience of development in many countries has been different and different actors have shouldered the burden of developing societies. It is suggested that the most important experience should shorten the hand of government interference in development policies and development should be stimulated in the community. It also gives the talented actors a field for development so that they can be supported in the field of action. On this basis, development needs to have a vision and a clear horizon and realize some kind of plan and plan to move from the existing point to the desired point. Keywords: Development, Future Research, National Leading, Iran.
