Document Type : Applied Article
Authors
1 Iran water policy research Institute
2 social science group, Letter and Humanities Faculty, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
3 Social Science Group, letter and humanities Faculty, Ferdowsi university of Mashhad
4 Social science group, letters and human sciences Faculty, Shahid Beheshti university
Abstract
The empirical literature review suggests that the primary cause of the water crisis in Iran is initially the state's involvement in managing water institutions, followed by its inefficiency in water management. However, this literature does not address why and through what process the state entered water governance and took centralized and exclusive control. Inspired by Mollinga's embeddedness approach and historical institutionalism, and employing the concepts of context and critical junctures, this study explores the history of state intervention in water management and identifies critical junctures. The findings reveal that the contextual factors of Iran's water governance—such as empowering farmers to pay taxes, drought and food security needs, developmental approaches during the formation of the modern state, and the class background of parliament members and government officials—led to the first critical juncture. This juncture was the establishment of the Independent Irrigation Organization in 1943, which enabled the state's participatory involvement in water resource management. Over the next 20 years, contextual changes, including increased state financial resources, shifts in the class structure of officials, elimination of opposition, the rise of Mohammad Reza Shah's power, and the use of water projects for state-nation building, contributed to the dominance of the hydraulic mission among elites. To implement this mission, the state required a powerful bureaucracy, which culminated in the establishment of the Ministry of Water and Power in 1963. Consequently, the state assumed centralized and exclusive control over water governance in Iran.
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