Ma`rifat Eqtesadi

Budget structural reforms in Iran, as one of the most central programs of economic transformation, require a redefinition of theoretical and methodological foundations. In this context, one of the most recent proposals is presented in the book “Budget Structural Reforms” by Pour Mohammadi, Madinizadeh and colleagues. In this article, using the “critical content analysis” and “documentary-analytical” methods, the proposed model in this book is criticized and examined. The main idea of the book is based on institutional and policy developments (reforms of the political economy of budgeting) with the aim of increasing the government’s capacity based on the rational rule of sustaining sufficient income and controlling expenditures to overcome budget deficits and inflation. This plan is inspired by conventional models Western and international, provides a framework for reforming the budgeting system in Iran and as an operational program. Based on the research findings, “methodological secularism” as a fundamental challenge is pervasive in the content of the book and the aforementioned plan; therefore, it is far from the desired economic model envisaged by Islam and the Constitution. The aforementioned plan, by not understanding the role of religious and cultural identity in designing institutions, leads to institutional imitation of external templates without paying attention to performance and local context. This article emphasizes the necessity of abandoning the secular paradigm and moving towards the “Islamic-Iranian budgeting” model in the form of consolidating Islamic economic and financial regulations and customs, and pursues the theory of developing Islamic state capability in the form of Islamic thought.