Qualitative Meta-analysis of Scientific Researches Concerning the Issue of Governance in Iran

Abstract

Lack of aboriginal governance model, which is appropriate to national, cultural and ideological circumstances of Iran, is one of the most important problems in the development process of Iran. This paper used Meta-Analysis Method (MAM) to combine the findings of other researches and tries to take a step forward in developing the Iranian Governance model. In this study, 68 articles and reports about governance issues published in the period from 2003 to 2015 have been studied. These articles have been obtained from the four main scientific databases in two main parts including descriptive finding and analytic qualitative finding. In the descriptive part, we used six indicators for description of the articles includes types of article, publishing period, typology, researchers’ gender, geographical distribution, and research methods. Quiddity, knowing why and knowing how were the three main indicators, due to the Belicky's research, for the analytical part. The results of the meta-analysis showed that Iranian researches in the field of governance are in the scope of knowing why and their articles are more about quiddity of governance and why governance models are needed. Although there are some serious criticisms for this theory, “Good governance” is the dominant theory among Iranian researchers. Some researchers have developed “Islamic Good Governance” models but these recommendations seem too intellectual and theoretical and because of the paradoxical roots they will not be very useful.