نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 دانشیار گروه علوم سیاسی، دانشکده اقتصاد وعلوم اجتماعی، دانشگاه رازی، کرمانشاه
2 جامعه شناسی دانشگاه رازی کرمانشاه ایران
3 اقتصاد، دانشکده اقتصاد و علوم اجتماعی، دانشگاه رازی، کرمانشاه، ایران
4 گروه علوم سیاسی، دانشکده اقتصاد و علوم اجتماعی، دانشگاه رازی، کرمانشاه، ایران
کلیدواژهها
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
The Political Economy of Kermanshah Province’s Development Dilemma from an Institutional Perspective
Farhad Daneshnia Siavash Gholipour Seyyed Mohammad Bagher Najafi Gholamreza Badri Manesh
This study aims to address the question of why Kermanshah Province, despite its abundant natural resources, distinctive climatic and geographical conditions, human, cultural, and environmental diversity, and significant potential for agricultural and tourism activities, has failed to attain a satisfactory level of development. The theoretical framework of the paper is grounded in institutional political economy, drawing primarily on the theories of Douglas North and Oliver Williamson. The research employs a descriptive–analytical methodology, and data are collected using documentary sources. The findings indicate that the province’s development dilemma did not arise abruptly or at a single historical moment. Rather, it should be understood as the outcome of a long-term historical process shaped by institutional factors, including the reproduction of tribal traditions, state policies implemented over the past century, and persistent disagreements regarding the appropriate development strategy for Kermanshah Province. These three components have consistently maintained a central and reciprocal relationship with underdevelopment. Accordingly, institutional improvement and reform, through legal reforms, inclusive and comprehensive education, accurate identification of the barriers to achieving strategic consensus on provincial development, and systematic efforts to eliminate these barriers, can play a crucial and effective role in advancing the province’s development objectives.
Keywords: historical process; institutional factors; tribal traditions; state policies; divergence in development strategy
Introduction
Nevertheless, Kermanshah, in contemporary history – particularly from the Pahlavi period to the present – has diverged from its formerly favorable position when viewed comparatively with other regions of the country. Factors such as war, politico-military conflicts, and misguided governmental economic policies have played a central role in this regard. In recent years, based on key indicators of economic development – such as per capita income, unemployment rate, and the household savings ratio – Kermanshah has not enjoyed favorable conditions compared to other provinces (Statistical Center of Iran, Report No. 5236: 2022).
An examination of the historical fluctuations in the political and economic conditions of Kermanshah, together with the fact that the aforementioned territory has experienced periods of favorable economic performance as well as intervals marked by markedly different conditions – during which its economic indicators ranked at lower levels relative to other regions of the country – clearly demonstrates that genetic and climatic characteristics cannot account for these disparities. Rather, the roots of such political and economic divergences must be sought in other factors.
Research Method and Theoretical Framework
The method employed in this article is descriptive-analytical, and the data collection technique is documentary. The sources utilized include books, academic articles, the National Statistical Portal, the Customs Administration of the Islamic Republic of Iran, statistical yearbooks, territorial planning documents, and economic statistics published by the Central Bank.
The theoretical framework of the article is based on the ideas of Oliver Williamson and Douglass North. In Williamson’s view, institutions are classified into four levels of social analysis:
1. Informal institutions (religion, culture, traditions, norms), characterized as “embeddedness”
2. Formal rules of the game (constitutional, statutory, governmental, and judicial laws), referred to as the “institutional environment”
3. The actual process of playing the game and its implementation in contracts (transparency of the governance structure), referred to as “governance”
4. Prices and quantities (achievement of final equilibrium conditions), characterized as “resource allocation and employment”
In general, and from a more comprehensive perspective, New Institutional Economics operates across two levels: the rules governing performance, and the exercise of governance and management.
Discussion and Findings
The advancement and development of Kermanshah in contemporary history have evolved into a complex and unbalanced issue. The factors that have given rise to such conditions in this region cannot be attributed to a single cause, nor can they be explained through a linear or one-dimensional analysis. From a political perspective, the absence of a unified long-term provincial development strategy, along with the pursuit of multiple, discontinuous, and unstable strategies, has significantly contributed to the sluggish pace of development in the province. Among the components that have prevented consensus on a single development strategy for the province, the following can be highlighted:
Conflicts in development thinking and in defining progress, along with the tension between form and substance in the concept of development and the prioritization of political considerations over policy substance, constitute key issues that have rendered the process of adopting a unified development strategy by regional decision-makers ambiguous and conflict-ridden, thereby perpetuating this theoretical fragmentation
The second institutional factor with a key role in the formation of Kermanshah’s development dilemma is the tribal culture prevailing among both the population and the officials of the province.
The third institutional component with a prominent role in the formation of Kermanshah’s development underperformance is the weakness of development infrastructure, inadequate budget allocation, and the marginalization of Kermanshah’s development within broader national priorities.
Conclusion
In the current study, the institutional barriers underlying Kermanshah’s development dilemma – characterized by extensive and complex dimensions – were examined through three key institutional indicators, each representing a wide range of institutional obstacles. The identified components were analyzed within three categories: the weakness of strategic consensus in adopting a development approach; the formation of tribal tradition as a cultural legacy in Kermanshah Province; and the unfavorable condition of development policy implementation alongside the trajectory of modernization in Kermanshah over the past century (peripheral modernization). The outcomes of this process – which itself is the result of other subsidiary and foundational causes such as repeated wars, occupation and destruction of parts of Kermanshah, the lack of central policy focus on Kermanshah’s progress and development, and the weakening of the region’s economic priorities through policies misaligned with Kermanshah’s local conditions – have led to the backwardness and weakness of many indicators in Kermanshah Province when compared to other provinces of the country.
کلیدواژهها English
