Iran: Public Policy NATE GOODIN PD 1

Welfare State  Lower-middle-income country with world’s seventeenth largest population  Total GDP: 458 Billion  GDP per capita: 7000  GDP annual growth rate (2003): 6.5%  GDP composition by sector, % of people working in sector (1999): - Agriculture: 21% - Industry: 23% - Services: 48% - Oil: 8%

GDP Pie Chart

Welfare State (Cont.)  Positive effects of 1979 Revolution on social prosperance - Islamic republic made social welfare a high priority - The expropriated assets of the former regime were transferred to new humanitarian foundations (Bonyads)

Bonyads  Charitable trusts that with significant role in non-petroleum economy -Controls an estimated 20% of GDP  Mostazafan Foundation of Islamic Revolution  Bonyad Shahid va Omur-e Janbazan

HDI -HDI is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income indices used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. +Health care system still ranked 93 out 155 by the world health organization. +Large subculture of drug users +20,000 people living with Aids, with HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate at.1 %

HDI  Significant progress in providing citizens with long and healthy life, access to education, and a decent standard of living.  Between 1980 and 2012, Iran's life expectancy at birth increased by 22.1 years, mean years of schooling increased by 5.7 years, and expected years of schooling increased by 5.7 years.  Gross national income per capita also increased by about 48% between 1980 and 2012.

Civil Liberties  State of civil liberties in Iran has significantly deteriorated in the past four years  Government severely limits the civil rights of the Iranian people, including freedom of expression and freedom of association. 

Gender  Iranian women have made significant gains in education since the 1979 revolution, now accounting for 60 percent of university entrants.  Still face major legal discrimination and an establishment that has no tolerance for women seeking greater rights.  Law deprives women of equal rights in marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance, and other areas.  A woman’s testimony in court is officially worth half that of a man  Women need the permission of father or husband to travel.  Women can run for seats in the parliament and city councils, but they cannot stand as candidates for the presidency or the Assembly of Experts.

Environment  Iran’s growing environmental problems are challenging the stability of the country.  Iran now ranks 114 of 132 countries evaluated on 22 environmental indicators  Food security is now imperiled because agriculture accounts for more than 92 percent of the country’s water use but only produces about 66 percent of the food supplies for 79 million people.  Irrigation is also highly inefficient

Environment  Recently taken important steps in the right direction.  Subsidy reforms initiated in 2010 will gradually require consumers to absorb the actual costs of water supplies, enhancing the incentives to be efficient.  Revenues saved from cutting back energy subsidies are intended to support initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

Oil  In 1908, Iran was the first country in the Persian Gulf to discover oil.  Petroleum has been the primary industry in Iran since the 1920s  Economy is heavily dependent on the lucrative oil and gas sector  Subsidized prices and a population that has doubled since the 1979 revolution has created excessive demand  Anglo-Persian Oil Company - First company to extract oil from Iran

Oil  The Iranian government’s dependence on oil revenues has resulted in prolonged patterns of rentierism—or dependence on a single natural resource—in its political economy  Misuse of oil revenues has also caused long term-economic problems

Nuclear attempts  Interest in nuclear technology dates to the 1950's, when the Shah of Iran began receiving assistance through the U.S. Atoms for Peace program  Signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as a non-nuclear weapon state in 1968  Still has nuclear Ambitions  In the 1990's began pursuing an indigenous nuclear fuel cycle capability by developing a uranium mining infrastructure