Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
Department of Economics, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
2
Department of Economics, Yasouj University, Yasouj, Iran.
3
Ph.D. Student of Monetary Economics, Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Management and Social Sciences, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
10.22059/ier.2025.376379.1008007
Abstract
This study explores the state-society interaction in contemporary Iran within an institutional framework, introducing the concept of “Institutional Congruence.” Where no consistency is reached between traditional background and modern values, institutional incongruence is not merely likely—it is structurally compelled. To the extent that institutions no longer maintain horizontal interactions together, nor a vertical relation to the foundational order of the system—and remain suspended within an unresolved tension between conflicting ways of inhabiting the world—in such circumstances, institutions cannot but fall into incongruity. The form of the state–society interaction, as the most prominent example of institutional interaction, is influenced by the nature, type, and degree of institutional incongruence and the tradition–modernity tension. The present study uses game theory to analyze Institutional Congruence in the dynamics of state-society interactions in the Islamic Republic. The findings indicate that while the Islamic Republic began with a degree of Institutional Congruence in its early years, over time —under the government’s conflicting strategies, different social demands, and economic challenges— this congruity has given way toward an incongruity, the consequences of which reverberate across the entire system. No institutional structure, in general, and state-society interaction, in particular, can sustain itself over time unless it is underpinned by Institutional Congruence. Consequently, some form of institutional congruence is a necessary condition for the continuity and development of the Islamic Republic—a condition that has become even more important in light of recent domestic and regional political-social dynamics as well as regional crises.
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