Special Issue INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND January 2016 CULTURAL STUDIES ISSN 2356-5926 Comparative assessing the Performance of fourth period Islamic Councils of Lenjan, and their role in improving urban management Hamid Aghabozorgy * M.A student in geography and urban planning, Payam Noor University, Isfahan, Iran * Author: Hamid Aghabozorgy Harandi09133166659 [email protected] Dr. Reza Mokhtari Malekabadi Assistant Professor Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran Dr. Ahmad Moazzeni Assistant Professor Department of Sociology, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran Abstract During four past period activity of Islamic councils in Iran have been faced with several challenges while it was developing and have has different effects on urban management, so it seems that the pathology of the council’s effects on urban management is necessary. Among this, Lenjan county with a population of over 246,510 has always been considered as one of the most challenging counties of Esfahan province due to its special geographical position. The purpose of this research is to study the cause of council’s problems in the cities of this county comparatively and providing appropriate solutions. In this study, the opinions of the people and urban management’s authorities of the county were assessed by "descriptive - analytic" method and questionnaires. Then they were analyzed by SPSS software. At the end, based on the skewness it was determined that the cities Sede Lenjan, Chamgordan and Baghbahadoran have had the best performance, the cities Baghshad, Varnamkhast, and Chermihan have had a middle performance. The cities Zarrin Shahr and Foolad Shahr because of their ethnic diversity as well as Zayanderood because of its distribution of communities have had a poor performance. Also in this study, urban management improvements strategies were studied for each city by the SWOT model. among the strategies, increasing political culture, the presence of people at public meetings of the City Council, reforming laws and regulations related to the selection and independence of the mayor to manage the city were determined as the most effective strategies to improve urban management of county. Keywords: Lenjan County, the city council, city management, Performance, Satisfaction. http://www.ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/index Page 604 Special Issue INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND January 2016 CULTURAL STUDIES ISSN 2356-5926 1- Introduction: Rapid population growth with expanding urbanization all over the world has created many problems in different countries especially developing countries because in developing countries the speed and size of urban growth and urbanization are far more than other countries. These problems are mostly because of mismatching broad needs of growing urban population with the ability of national governments and the municipal administration to respond them. One of the current challenges that planning and the formation and shaping management of civil local and urban society systems are faced with is the Consolidation of duties of citizens and strengthen citizen participation in local governance in cities. In this regard, one of the most important and basic activities that have been done in communities is decentralization in managing cities. The result of this policy is to birth of local governments and organizations that have been mainly created with the aim of increasing public participation in determining their own destiny (Nejat Hosseini, 20: 2001). 1-1 statement of the problem: The experience of forming councils in Iran goes back to March 1999 when about 750 city councils and more than 23 thousand rural councils have been formed. With this starting off about 5 thousand representatives of cities and 107 thousand members of rural councils the largest experience of activity of an electoral institution in local administration in Iran's contemporary history have been started. At the beginning of council’s formation in Iran, it was referred to as one of the civil society organizations, but after four rounds of its formation there was not the premium delight about it among social and political elites anymore and it does not seem that councils could find any new supporter among any other groups of people. Meanwhile, doubts and negative assessments of some executive officials can be heard more resounding. In the belief of many of executive managers in the municipalities and other organizations that are active in municipal affairs, the councils’ members have increased inefficiency in municipals with their unfamiliarity with the issues of urban management and applying their personal and political tastes into work. Also, the people consider the councils as an inefficient and weak institution because the councils follow the mayors and facilitate their sectional decisions that are inconsistent with the long-term interests of the citizens (Khatam, 103: 2002). In the meantime, Lenjancounty always has been considered as one of the important counties of Esfahan province and Iran because of its major industrial and economic potentials as well as attractsEsfahan province population so the problems of the county, particularly in relation with the role of councils to improve its management,can be evaluated as a good case. This county with 9 towns (Zarrinshahr, Fouladshahr, Varnamkhast, Chamgordan, Sede Lenjan, Zayanderood, Baghshad, Baghbahadoran, Chermihan) and with a diverse population has always been one of the most challenging counties of theprovince in terms of urban management, especially in western cities. This study aims to analyze the causes of this disorder with assessing http://www.ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/index Page 605 Special Issue INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND January 2016 CULTURAL STUDIES ISSN 2356-5926 the problems of the county and alongside expressing the existing problems of each city, provides some solutions comparatively. 1-2 The importance and necessity of research: Although appropriate enforcement of councils low is a worthy practice of collective cooperation and creates a proper atmosphere for executive activities and developing the power of management, without a doubt even the best laws will not have any outcome in the absence of proper implementation. Lack of foresight to prevent unwise choices, with other considerations will have heavier responsibility for candidates and electors. Low enforcement of councils, at first, requires an understanding of the issue by the community so that they can step towards to improving their life and urban environment by their correct selection. On the other hand, the main task of Islamic councils is to put Urban Affairs on the right course in order to all residents equally benefit from municipal services and to specify many of the laws, bylaws, scope and powers of municipalities (Khatam, 103: 2002). However, these days the councils is less aware of their duties and they have been more involved in marginal political issues, therefore, necessarily the issue must be solved correctly as soon as possible with reviewing expertly in order to the people and urban management does not suffer more than it. 1-3 research purposes: The study with general purpose of evaluating the performance of Islamic Councils fourth period of Lenjan County comparatively is trying to find shortcoming and problems of Islamic council institution and then providing appropriate solutions in order to improve urban management of the county and it also is following some sub-goals: 1-3-1 investigating the causes of dissatisfaction of people with the performance of Islamic Councils in each city of Lenjan county; 1-3-2 analyzing the problems of urban management in each city of Lenjan county; 1-3-3 studying strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the City Council; 1-3-4 offering recommendations and strategies for improving the effectiveness of councils in urban management; 1-4 Literature Review: -Coombs, Vera and Maxine Goodman (2012) in an article entitled "Toward a functional city council," have studied the performance of city councils in managing municipalities of America comparatively. The results show that if the councils have integrated performance and learn leadership skill sets, they can become functional city councils and the achievement of such city councils is to maintain the political future of citizens and good local governance. - Aaron Landsman and Mallory Cutlet (2013) in an article entitled "The quality of the meetings of the City Council" have studied the meetings of the City Council of Texas, America in the form of descriptive – analytic. The results of this research show that by providing a situation for citizens to attend meetings of the city council, council members always see themselves under the http://www.ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/index Page 606 Special Issue INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND January 2016 CULTURAL STUDIES ISSN 2356-5926 closely watch of people and be careful in their decisions also the people have shown their satisfaction about attending a meeting of the council by their comments. - Berkane, Dmyral (2014) in an article entitled "The impact of the civil structure of the city government on the development of developing countries" has examined the implementation structure of decision making of the city councils and the barriers of local governors by the descriptive-analytical method. At the end, he has concluded that city council must be reviewed in terms of transparency and budget. He says that in comparison with developing country one of the city council’s problems in Turkey is to become far away from the active citizen, also, he recommended consulting instead of participation in the local governor. -Salehabadi, Fahimeh (2006) in her thesis entitled "The role of City Council on the urban management in Iran" reviews the role of Islamic Councils on urban management. Her method of research is descriptive and in terms of purpose, it is applied. The study population was included of Islamic Council and municipal of Tehran and Deputy Keep track boards of councils in the Interior Ministry. According to the results, the tasks assigned to city councils are not matched with the goal of urban management.