Main Intergovernmental Conflicts among Urban Management Actors of Small Cities Case Study: City of Natanz, Iran

There are studies about interlocal relations of local governance, but it would be unique to explain these in urban management mechanisms of unitary country in Middle East, like Iran. One of the important issues for the city's urban management system is its state actors’ interrelations and probable challenges of this process, which mentioned by terms like inter-local, intergovernmental, or inter-organizational relations and is the main issue of this article. Present study aims to find the main challenges in the iranian multi-level intergovernmental relations, especially in local-level urban management of small cities. After a review of conflicts among local actors in iranian town’s administration, the contradictory components are summarized in the propositions. In order to better explain findings and utilize the opinions of local decision makers of Natanz city (the study case in Iran), the importance of existing conflicts and challenges was measured via questionnaire and interview. Through factor analysis method, such propositions as lack of updated plans and programs (prepared at national level but for local level), and the unbalanced proportion between scope of duties and authority at local level, are among the most important concerns of them.