Probing the Reasons Why the Goals of the Fifth Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plan Have not Been Realized in the Cooperative Sector in Iran

The cooperative sector is one of the three main components of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s economic system. Based on the top policies of Article 44 of the Constitution, its share of the national economy is expected to reach 25% by the end of the Fifth Development Plan. However, only 7% of this share has so far been realized. This study aims at discovering the reasons, backgrounds, processes and consequences of the cooperative sector underdevelopment. Using the subjective sampling method, first the documents available in the Ministry of Cooperative, Labor and Social Welfare were collected and analyzed. Then, the necessary data were gathered and formulated through open and deep interviews with cooperative managers, employees and experts throughout the country. Active cooperatives in different domains comprised the unit of analysis. Findings show that ‘background conditions’ such as general challenges and problems, and inappropriate cultural infrastructures; ‘causal conditions’ such as economic problems within cooperatives, absence of clear planning for the cooperative sector, human capital weaknesses within cooperatives; ‘moderating conditions’ such as cooperative challenges at the international stage and legal challenges in cooperatives; and ‘processes’ such as short-term approach to the cooperative sector and the present abnormal interactions all constitute the ‘outcomes’ of underdevelopment of the cooperatives sector. Also, the concept ‘deterioration of social capital as the cause of stagnation of the cooperative sector’ is presented under the title of ‘the nucleus theme’.