A Qualitative Comparative Comparison Between presidential Cultural Ideas and Cultural Policies of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, 1997-2013

Subject Areas : Political Developments in Iran

Seyed Ehssan Najmolhoda ¹ , Mohammad Reza Yazdani Zazerani ^{2 *} , Mehraban Hadipeykani ³

1 - Ph.D Student of Public Policy, Department of Political Science, Isf.C., Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor of Public Policy ,Department of Political Science, Isf.C., Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
3 - Assistant Professor of public management, Department of Management, Isf.C., Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

Received: 2025-02-17 Accepted : 2025-07-09 Published : 2025-07-18

Keywords: Public Policy Making, Idea, Policy Change, Cultural Policy, Supreme Council for the Cultural Revolution, Qualitative Comparative Analysis ,

Abstract :

Understanding how public policies change has led to the emergence of various perspectives on the factors that underlie change in the policy process and its outcomes. In this field, attention to the idea factor has a long history, as with the formation of the idea-oriented trend, researchers explain changes in existing policies by applying ideas in the form of heuristics, strategic tools, and institutional frameworks. The present study, by examining ideas as an institutional framework, attempts to explain the importance of ideas in policy change in the policy-making environment of the Islamic Republic. To this end, a scale is made between the ideas that presidents have expressed for cultural policies at the beginning of their presidency and cultural policies that were approved by those ideas during their presidency. To make this comparison, recurring ideas in each period (secondary data) and content analysis of cultural policies approved by the Supreme Council for the Cultural Revolution during the two presidential terms of Mr. Khatami and Mr. Ahmadinejad are used, and qualitative comparative analysis will be used for the final comparison. The research findings indicate that in each presidential term, at least half of the recurring ideas have been transformed into cultural policies, and for some ideas, several policies have been adopted.

References:

احمدی, هانیه, دانایی فرد, حسن, امامی, سیدمجتبی, & دلخواه, جلیل. (1399). تحلیل تطبیقی کیفی و خط‌مشی عمومی. روش شناسی علوم انسانی, 26(103), 17-37. doi: 10.30471/mssh.2020.5890.1938
نجم الهدی, سید احسان , یزدانی زازرانی, محمدرضا و هادی پیکانی, مهربان . (1402). عاملیت کارگزاران در سیاستگذاری فرهنگی؛ مطالعه گفتمان‌های ریاست جمهوری ایران (1368 تا 1396). سیاستگذاری عمومی, 9(4), 80-96. doi: 10.22059/jppolicy.2024.96182
نجم‌الهدی, سید احسان و یزدانی زازرانی, محمدرضا . (1400). چارچوب تحلیل روایی سیاست: درک و کاربرد تحلیل روایت در پژوهش‌های سیاستگذاری عمومی. سیاستگذاری عمومی, 7(1), 215-234. doi: 10.22059/jppolicy.2021.81996
Baumgartner, F. R., & Jones, B. D. (2010). Agendas and instability in American politics. University of Chicago Press
Béland, D. (2019). How ideas and institutions shape the politics of public policy. Cambridge University Press. (doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108634700)
Butt, A.I. (2019). Public Policy and Ideation. In: Grimm, H.M. (eds) Public Policy Research in the Global South. Springer, Cham. (doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06061-9_5)
Cairney, P. (2019). Understanding public policy: theories and issues (Vol. 2). Bloomsbury Publishing
Campbell, J. L. (2002). Ideas, Politics, and Public Policy. Annual review of sociology, 28(1), 21-38. (doi: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.28.110601.141111) ‏
Carstensen, M. B., & Schmidt, V. A. (2016). Power Through, Over and in Ideas: Conceptualizing Ideational Power in Discursive Institutionalism. Journal of European public policy, 23(3), 318-337. (doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2015.1115534)
John, P. (2018). Theories of policy change and variation reconsidered: a prospectus for the political economy of public policy. Policy sciences, 51(1), 1-16. (doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-017-9297-x)
Larsson, O. L. (2015). Using post-structuralism to explore the full impact of ideas on politics. Critical Review, 27(2), 174-197. (doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/08913811.2015.1073883)
Vivien A. Schmidt (2011) Speaking of change: why discourse is key to the dynamics of policy transformation, Critical Policy Studies, (5:2), 106-126. (doi: https://10.1080/19460171.2011.576520)
Shearer, J. C., Abelson, J., Kouyaté, B., Lavis, J. N., & Walt, G. (2016). Why do policies change? Institutions, interests, ideas and networks in three cases of policy reform. Health policy and planning, 31(9), 1200-1211. (https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czw052)
Swinkels, M. (2020). How Ideas Matter in Public Policy: A Review of Concepts, Mechanisms and Methods. International Review of Public Policy, 2(2: 3), 281-316. (doi: https://doi.org/10.4000/irpp.1343)
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2005). Ideas and Welfare State Reform in Western Europe. Palgrave. (doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230286016)
http:// www.sccr.ir