Identifying the most important obstacles to citizen participation in the decision-making process of Islamic councils in Ilam)
Subject Areas :Davood Jamini 1 , Alireza Jamshidi 2
1 - Assistant Professor, Department of Geomorphology, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
Part-time Researcher at Kurdistan Studies Institute, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.
Keywords: Urban Management, Citizen Participation, Ilam, sustainable urban development, council,
Abstract :
Having an acceptable level of participation of citizens in various urban affairs, especially urban management, is one of the main pillars of respecting citizenship rights and achieving sustainable development. One of the most important aspects of citizens' participation in various city affairs is their participation in the decision-making process of the city's Islamic councils, which are directly elected by citizens' votes. The aim of the present applied research is to predict the level of citizens' participation in the decision-making process of the city's Islamic councils and to identify the most important obstacles to attracting citizens' participation in the said process, which has been conducted as a case study in the city of Ilam. The statistical population of the current research is 194030 citizens of Ilam city, of which 384 people were selected for the study through Cochran's formula, then using a researcher's questionnaire, the necessary information was obtained from the neighborhoods of Rozmendagh, Shadabad, Zamin Shahri, Ban Bor, Rislat in a simple random manner. , agricultural settlement was collected in Ilam city. It is necessary to explain that the face validity and reliability of the research tool was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha test (α = 0.758). Also, the statistical methods used for data analysis were one-sample t-test and exploratory factor analysis. The results of the research showed that despite the fact that the level of citizens' participation in the decision-making process of the councils is in an unfavorable situation with an average of 2.2, the willingness of citizens to participate in the decision-making process of the councils is at a high level with an average of 3.17. The results of the exploratory factor analysis showed that the five main obstacles to the participation of citizens in the decision-making process of the Islamic councils of Ilam city, which were able to explain 79.662% of the variance of the dependent variable, are, in order of importance, the lack of citizen-oriented councils, the weakness of the scientific foundation. The specialization of councils, the limitations of laws and regulations and supervision, the weakness of social capital and the lack of attention of citizens.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
During the past decades, despite the increasing academic attention to citizens' participation in urban affairs, evidence shows a significant decrease in various levels of civic, political and institutional participation of citizens. On the one hand, people are interested in participating in local issues that affect their lives, and on the other hand, members of the city administration do not want to involve people in the decision-making process (Mohammadi et al, 2018: 1762). The reduction of public trust and skepticism towards the policies and decision-making of institutions in charge of urban development is one of the main reasons for reducing the level of citizen participation in various urban affairs (Ekman and Amna, 2012: 283). Considering the importance of citizens' participation in the process of urban development, most experts consider the experience of centralized urban management to be a failure and consider it impossible without the participation of citizens in the administration of city affairs and the transformation of city dwellers into citizens. Therefore, citizens' participation is considered one of the main concerns of modern urban managements, which is not possible to achieve except through scientific and planned efforts based on sufficient understanding of the problem (Yaghfouri and Rafiyan, 2014: 82; Bozarjamehri et al., 2018: 37).
The city of Ilam with a population of 194,030 (Iran Statistics Center, 2015), as the fifth most populous city in Iran, plays a key and pivotal role in the growth and development of Fars province. The location of numerous historical, cultural, religious, industrial, service, educational and tourism centers in the city of Ilam is only a part of this city's capabilities in the field of urban and regional development. These things have caused the population of this city to grow rapidly in recent decades. On the one hand, considering the importance of citizens' participation in the decision-making process of city managers (especially the city's Islamic councils, which are directly elected by citizens), and on the other hand, considering the challenges caused by the lack of participation of citizens in the decision-making process of managers. The main questions of the current research are: What is the level of participation and the degree of willingness of citizens to participate in the decision-making of the Islamic Council of Ilam? And what are the most important obstacles to attract citizens' participation in the decision-making process of the Islamic councils of Ilam city?
Methodology
The present quantitative and applied research is a descriptive-analytical type of research, which was completed using documentary data (articles, books, Iran Statistics Center, etc.) and field data (completion of a questionnaire). The statistical population of the research includes 194,030 citizens of Ilam city who are over 18 years old. Considering the large size of the statistical population and the difficulty of conducting the census, 384 people were estimated as a statistical sample using Cochran's formula. The main research tool for collecting field data is a researcher-made questionnaire, which has been used to check its validity (face validity) from the opinions of urban planning experts and university professors. To check the reliability of the questionnaires, a pre-test method was used and 30 questionnaires were completed, and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient obtained for the main parts of the questionnaire was more than 0.7.
The said questionnaire is designed in five main sections. The first part of the questionnaire includes the respondents' demographic information such as their age, occupation, monthly income, household dimensions and their education. The second and third sections are respectively devoted to the degree of participation and willingness of citizens to participate in the decision-making of the Islamic City Council, and the fourth section is devoted to the issues related to the obstacles to citizens' participation in the decision-making of city councils. It is necessary to explain, in order to investigate the level of participation or the willingness of citizens to participate in the decision-making of the Islamic Council, four approval or planning sections (social, economic, health and cultural planning), monitoring (oversight of affairs) have been used. various, including health affairs, financial affairs and assets, and supervising the implementation of the council's approvals, implementing development plans and supervising the affairs of the cemetery), executive (in the field of elections, formation of organizations and associations, Forming various issues, encouraging activity and public participation) and cooperation and consultation (with executive officials, in the field of approving and implementing approvals, recognizing shortcomings and inadequacies, in the field of forming associations, collecting proposals and presenting them to executive organizations).
Results and discussion
The results showed that the indicators of citizens' participation in the decision-making of the city's Islamic Council are not in a suitable state. In other words, it can be said that the level of participation of the studied people in the field of the desired indicators is lower than the average, which can be seen based on the negative and significant t coefficient obtained. On the other hand, the results of examining the status of the indicators of citizens' willingness to participate in the decision-making process of the Islamic councils in Ilam city showed that the approval indicators are in a good state (mean = 3.49 and standard deviation = 0.838). Cooperation (mean = 3.44 and standard deviation = 0.905), implementation (mean = 3.36 and standard deviation = 1.05) and supervision (mean = 3.14 and standard deviation = 0.906). Also, the t obtained for the desired indicators is positive and significant, and based on this, it can be said that the degree of willingness of the desired people to participate in the decision-making indicators of the Islamic Council of Ilam city is higher than the theoretical mean or average.
The results of the factor analysis showed that five factors have been identified as the most important obstacles to attracting citizens' participation in the council's decision-making process. In total, five identified factors have been able to explain 79.662% of the variance of the dependent variable. The specific value of identified factors in order of importance are: first factor 20.417%, second factor 19.577%, third factor 16.793%, fourth factor 11.738% and fifth factor 11.137%. According to the obtained results, the most important obstacles to the participation of citizens in the decision-making process of the Islamic councils of Ilam city are 1- the non-citizen-oriented nature of the councils, 2- the weakness of the scientific-specialized foundation of the councils, 3- the limitations of laws and regulations and supervision, 4 - Weakness of social capital and 5- Indifference of citizens.
Conclusion
Considering the low participation of citizens in the decision-making process of Islamic councils, despite the significant desire of citizens to participate in the said process and also identifying the obstacles to attract citizens' participation, operational solutions to improve the level of citizen participation in the decision-making process of Islamic councils, the scope of study are: 1. - Revision of the rules and regulations for the candidates of the city Islamic Council and considering the specialized filtering of urban management for the candidates, 2- Requiring the city Islamic councils to pay attention to the opinions of the citizens, 3- Providing incentive and even punishment policies for the members of the city Islamic council. 4- Justifying the Islamic City Councils regarding the importance of citizens' participation in the decision-making process, 5- Closer supervision of the supervisory bodies on the performance of the councils, 6- Clarification of adopted plans and policies, 7- Informing citizens about the duties and rights of citizens.
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