After World War II many countries around the world started development and growth of their economic power, but Iran has fallen behind many other countries.
International institutions such as the World Bank addressed this issue in the early 1990s and finally made it clear that ‘governance’ is a key issue in the development strategy of countries with poor performance.
They then indexed this new category in the development economics literature, which ‘includes six components: corruption control, government effectiveness, political stability, quality of laws and regulations, rule of law, the right to comment and be accountable, which is considered as a model for development and ‘good governance.’
But the Iranian government does not abide by any of these indexes. Even while government experts analyzed these indexes about Iran, they were scared about the results.
“An examination of the data and statistics of various institutions shows that Iran is not in a good position in terms of governance. This is evident in all the indicators that are built around the category of governance. Iran’s best ranking in 2018 is related to ‘government effectiveness’, in which it is ranked 131st among 209 countries.
“But in other indicators, it is among the last 50 countries among more than 200 countries. The position of the country among the countries of the region (25 countries) is not very suitable, so that in all indicators except the government effectiveness index, it is considered as one of the last 10 countries.
“In addition to the World Bank, Iran is not in a favorable position in the eyes of other international institutions that have described good governance.” (Iran’s Economic Affairs Research Institute / Ministry of Economy, May 2020)
In the above findings, the Minister of Communications, in his final days in office confirmed that ‘good governance’ in Iran is only tantamount to the ‘survival’ of the people and said: “Like it or not, every day one of the thousands of faces of the pain of poverty and deprivation parades before our eyes. The pain of ‘survival’ that can neither be ignored nor reacted to.” (State-run Khabar Online, May 11, 2021)
In the index, Iran was ranked 131st in terms of ‘government effectiveness’ which is considered good for the regime’s officials.
But what are their opinions about the inflation which is tied with the people’s livelihood baskets?
“The most important challenge we have in the country’s economy is the challenge of inflation. This chronic inflation, which has plagued us for more than four decades, reflects the inefficiencies and structural problems that exist in our economy.
“The result of all these inefficiencies in the economy will be an increase in inflation, because eventually the government will have to solve these problems indirectly, without the people realizing it, by creating money.
“That is, the banking system has covered these imbalances by creating money. But the banking system itself has suffered a greater imbalance that has used central bank resources.” (State-run daily Tejarat, May 12, 2021)
One of the members of the Expediency Council about the suffering of the country’s economy and the inefficiency of the government said: “There is no doubt that Iran’s economy is in turmoil. Management is the main challenge of the country’s economy and we have been plagued by mismanagement in all the past years.” (Tejarat, May 12, 2021)
About the high costs and its pressure on the people, he added: “The prices have become so terrible that the sections of the society, especially the minimum wage earners, are shouting what can I do, and the increase in salaries and wages cannot meet these costs, which result in empty tables and the shame of the breadwinner of the family.” (Tejarat, May 12, 2021)
And again, about the government’s inefficiency and irresponsibility, he added: “The fat and lazy government manages the affairs of the country. The presence of about 3.5 million government employees shows how much we rely on government desks and chairs to create jobs.
“This approach causes a lot of costs in the form of salaries and wages to be imposed on the country’s economy, in such a way that a large part of government revenue is spent on government salaries and benefits.” (Tejarat, May 12, 2021)
