Ma`rifat Eqtesadi

The public budget in the Islamic Republic of Iran should not be considered merely a financial tool for allocating resources, but can be considered as a strategic document for realizing the goals and values of the Islamic Revolution. However, empirical evidence indicates that there is a significant gap between the ideals emphasized in the School of Imams of the Revolution and the actual performance of the country's budgeting system. The present study aims to explain the budgeting evaluation framework based on the intellectual foundations of Imam Khomeini and the martyred leader of the Islamic Revolution, as well as to diagnose the obstacles to its realization in the political economy of Iran. Using the content analysis method, this study extracted the main components of the budgeting evaluation framework in the Imams of the Revolution school by examining documents, general policies, and strategic statements, and then examined the extent to which these components were realized using macroeconomic data and a case study of the health sector. The findings show that the desired budgeting framework in this school is based on four principles: justice-oriented and supporting the oppressed, independence and resistance economy, knowledge-based and science-oriented progress, and good governance and fighting corruption. However, trends related to income inequality, the continued dependence of the budget on oil revenues, the low share of research in GDP, the dominance of current expenses over development credits, and the treatment-oriented nature of the health budget indicate a persistent discrepancy between the desired situation and the realities of budgeting. Analysis of the results shows that the rentier structure of the economy, the dominance of the technocratic approach in policymaking, institutional short-termism, and the intensification of external pressures are the most important factors in reproducing this gap.