Abstract

The present study was conducted with the aim of identifying obstacles to achieving social justice and presenting a desirable policy-making model based on good governance in Iran.

In this regard, a qualitative approach and the Causal Layer Analysis (CLA) method were used for a multi-level analysis of political, cultural, discursive, and institutional structures. Data were semi-structured interviews with experts and policymakers and examined at four levels of analysis: (1) mythological and metaphorical layer; (2) social and cultural structure; (3) structural causes; and (4) surface discourses. The findings show that justice-oriented policymaking in Iran faces challenges such as subjective and institutional authoritarianism, weak social capital, reduction of justice to spending, lack of an effective evaluation system, and discursive sloganeering. The research ultimately led to the development of a proposed model for justice-oriented policymaking that is based on four key axes: discursive transformation, institutional reform, participatory policymaking, and equitable redistribution of resources