The Journal of Modern Research on Administrative Law

The Journal of Modern Research on Administrative Law

Transparency as an essential element in the good governance of the Islamic Consultative Assembly

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
heidarali noroozpour 1
Kheyrollah Parvin 2
1 PhD Student, Public Law, Islamic Azad University & Head of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of Administrative and Recruitment Organization
2 Professor, Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
10.22034/mral.2021.533299.1163
Abstract
Transparency is considered as one of the most important elements of good governance theory. Good governance, according to modern principles of administrative law, requires quick and easy access of citizens to information available to public institutions. People and social institutions should be fully aware of the process of governing the country's affairs and the laws and information available in each area. Lack of transparency is one of the main factors in not controlling corruption and increasing administrative and financial corruption in countries. Which is published annually by Transparency International according to the relevant indicators and its report, so it is necessary to create a free media and information space, provide the basis for transparent operation of the governing bodies, including the important institution of parliament and the legislature. It has to do with the fact that in the Iranian legal system, in relation to transparency in the legislative process, only some issues such as publicity of legislation, publication of laws and information of stakeholders (public awareness), and public access to laws as a right have been addressed, while in addition In addition to the above, the realization of transparency in the legislative system of the country requires "the formulation and implementation of rules of conduct and the implementation of conditional transparency of votes" as well as "the realization of transparency in order to repeal the laws."

Highlights

Transparency is an essential element in the good governance of the Islamic Consultative Assembly

 

Transparency is considered one of the most important elements of good governance theory. Good governance, according to modern principles of administrative law, requires quick and easy access of citizens to information available to public institutions. People and social institutions should be fully aware of the process of governing the country's affairs and the laws and information available in each area. Lack of transparency is one of the main factors in not controlling corruption and increasing administrative and financial corruption in countries. Which is published annually by Transparency International according to the relevant evaluation indicators and its report, so it is necessary to create a free media and information space, provide the basis for the transparent operation of the governing bodies, including the important institution of parliament and the legislature. It has to do with the fact that in the Iranian legal system, concerning transparency in the legislative process, only some issues such as publicity of legislation, publication of laws and information of stakeholders (public awareness), and public access to laws as a right have been addressed, while In addition to the above, the realization of transparency in the legislative system of the country requires "the formulation and implementation of rules of conduct and the implementation of conditional transparency of votes" as well as "the realization of transparency in the votes of representatives."

1-Theoretical foundations

In the system of the Islamic Republic and according to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the people have been given a fundamental and role. The Islamic State considers its power and influence to depend on the support of individuals. The support and participation of the people in all aspects of governance and participation in the election of all officials of the system, directly or indirectly, is a sign of the people's government and reliance on the people.

According to the ideology of the Islamic Republic, which is the same as religious democracy, the people themselves are the guarantors of their destiny in government and have an irreplaceable role in maintaining and promoting their government. Religious democracy is based on the principle that people should not only govern. Participate in various elections, but also all aspects of governance.

The existence of the Islamic Consultative Assembly is one of the most important manifestations of religious democracy in the Islamic Republic, and the supervision of the people over the implementation of the government is one of the most important duties for the people in Islamic governments.

In principle, monitoring is not practically possible without providing information, and it is not possible to comment or even assist on the performance of an official without any of his / her activities in the position of intelligence power. Also, without information, people will not be able to hold officials accountable for their actions.

The Islamic Consultative Assembly is one of the most important institutions of the Islamic Republic, in which the importance of being accountable and monitoring the people is doubly important; Because the representatives have entered the parliament on behalf of the people to represent their thoughts and concerns and to solve the problems and issues of the people. Dissemination of information of the Islamic Consultative Assembly in various fields causes the monitoring of the representative's behavior and performance to increase and the representative, as a result, considers himself responsible and accountable for all the activities of the representative.

In this study, an attempt has been made to discover and select indicators and components to assess the transparency of the Islamic Consultative Assembly that is based on Islamic principles and the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran to help people achieve the right to oversight and participation in governance.

 

1/1- Conflict of interest

The selection of the component "dissemination of information on the conflict of interests of representatives" as a separate component is due to the importance and important role that this issue has in the decisions and behaviors of representatives in the Islamic Consultative Assembly. The real control of the people over their representatives in the parliament is realized when the people know what personal interests their representative has so that when legislating, his interests do not take precedence over the interests of the people.

 

2/1-Elections of the Islamic Consultative Assembly

Transparency in the elections of the Islamic Consultative Assembly is considered by many experts to be a more fundamental and fundamental issue than the transparency of the Islamic Consultative Assembly itself. In the financial resources and advertising expenses of each of the representatives and ... A representative who enters the Islamic Consultative Assembly unhealthily and with dubious financial resources is indebted to those in power and wealth and cannot act freely in the Assembly and may suffer from unprofessional behavior of the representative, including interfering in dismissals and installations. Therefore, transparency in the elections of the Islamic Consultative Assembly is one of the most basic preconditions for creating transparency in the Islamic Consultative Assembly.

 

3/1-People's participation in the Islamic Consultative Assembly

As stated in the theoretical foundations, the participation of the people in the affairs of the government is one of the most fundamental components of religious democracy. In the Islamic system, the people feel a duty towards the Islamic government and the participation of the people in the government takes various forms.

One of the main indicators added to the final framework of the index is "the possibility of consulting the people in drafting, amending and supplementing the draft laws."

Another indicator of this component is the "existence of an electronic petition system" that allows people to put various issues of concern directly on the agenda of the parliament by collecting a minimum of signatures.

 

4/1-Transparency of votes

Vote of each representative:

- His participation or non-participation in decisions is crucial for the future of the country.

- Publishing and archiving the vote of each representative on various plans and bills is an undisputed source for voting or not voting for him in the upcoming elections.

Make delegates accountable for their decisions.

- The non-participation of many representatives in public voting is a problem that has always existed due to the lack of transparency of votes and the uncertainty of the names of those who do not participate in voting so that in some meetings the number of people who did not participate in voting. Sometimes it has reached 91 people.

- The transparency of the votes provides the grounds for asking the delegates a question regarding its votes and causes a conflict of votes on various issues.

 

5/1-Transparency in the mechanism of law enforcement monitoring the behavior of representatives

The Law on Supervising the Conduct of Deputies was approved by the Islamic Consultative Assembly in 2012. In this law, by electing a supervisory board by the court, the complaints received by the deputies regarding unprofessional and out-of-representation behavior acts contrary to the national security of the country, and abuse and financial misconduct of the representative are examined and punished accordingly.

The lack of transparency in the complaints received by this board is one of the negative points of the implementation of this law, and it is not considered effective for monitoring the behavior of the representatives.

to make this law more efficient and operational, the executive mechanisms of this law must be clarified. For example, the number and subject of the representatives' violations in the first stage should be made public without a name or with the first letters of the representative's name. In this case, the supervisory board can not remove an issue from the agenda of the board in a tasteful manner and handle the complaints and must be responsible for the outcome of each complaint. When the representative's violation is proven, the result of the representative's violation and the punishment that will be imposed on him should also be made public so that all the people are aware of the results of the supervisory board's investigations.

 

2 -Policy proposals

Based on the findings of this study, an attempt has been made to provide policy proposals to create more transparency in the Islamic Consultative Assembly.

- Creating and promoting a culture of transparency

- Changing the approach of the internal regulations of the Islamic Consultative Assembly based on using the capacities of the bylaws to improve the transparency of votes and performance of representatives

-Creating agency profiles using the experiences of different countries,

- Dissemination of parliamentary data with open data standards

 

Keywords
Transparency
Law
Legislator
Good Administration
Parliament
Subjects
Publisher, Sajjad; Safavi, Hamidreza (2017), "Qualitative evaluation of the principles of water governance in Iran with emphasis on the principle of transparency", the first conference on governance and public policy.
Ansari, Baqer (2007), "Revision of laws and regulations, a measure to combat legal ambiguity", Journal of Legal Information, Year 6, No. 11.
Ansari, Baqer (2008), Freedom of Information, Publication of Justice.
Bagheri, Mahmoud; Fazeli, Marjan (2013), "Consumer protection in insurance contracts based on exchange justice", Journal of Parliament and Strategy, 20th year, No. 74.
Tavassolizadeh, Turan, (2013), Prevention of Economic Crimes, Tehran: Jangal Publications, First Edition.
Thornton, J .; C., (2009) The process of preparing a draft law, translated by Saeed Attar, Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, serial number 1, Azar.
Habibzadeh, Mohammad Jafar, (2011), Capacities and Challenges of Iranian Criminal Policy in Creating Judicial Security, in Collection of Judicial Security Articles, Tehran: Publication of the Research Institute for Strategic Studies.
Hassani, Ali, Shams, Abdolhamid, "Strategies to fight corruption based on Islamic values", Islam and managerial research, second year, first issue, autumn and winter 2012.
Khezri, Mohammad, "Institutional Analysis of Corruption", Quarterly Journal of Strategic Studies, Year 8, Issue 3, Fall 2005.
Rasekh, Mohammad, (2005) Theoretical Foundation for Legislative Reform, Office of Legal Studies, Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
Rasekh, Mohammad, (2009) Supervision and Balance in the Constitutional Law System, Tehran: Drak.
Zarei, Mohammad Hossein, (2004), Good Governance, Sovereignty and Government in Iran, Journal of Legal Research, Faculty of Law, Shahid Beheshti University, 2004, No. 40.
Zandieh, Hassan, Salar Sarvari, Hassan (2013), "Document Transparency and the Right to Free Access to Information", Ganjieh Asnad Quarterly, Year 23, First Book.
Sarikhani, Adel; Akrami Sarab, Ruhollah (2013), "Preventive Functions of Transparency in Criminal Policy", Legal Journal of Justice, No. 82.
Soltani, Seyed Nasser (2009), "Causes of Law Failure in Iran", Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, serial number 9957.
Detailed minutes of the deliberations of the Assembly of the final review of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, (1364), (Tehran, General Department of Cultural Affairs and Public Relations of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
Taheri, Mohsen; Arista, Javad (2016), "Comparative study of the principles of transparency from the perspective of Islam and the theory of good governance", Journal of Comparative Research in Islamic and Western Law, No. 9.
Aqelinejad, Mohammad Amin (2015), Prevention of Banking Crimes through Corporate Governance in Banks, Tehran: Javadaneh Publications, First Edition.
Abdul Husseinzadeh, Mohammad; Sanaei, Mehdi (2015), "Explaining the Concept and Application of Transparency in Governance and Public Administration", The First National Conference on Public Administration in Iran: Public Policy.
Kamali, Yahya (2013), "The Impact of Economic Transparency in Preventing and Combating Economic Corruption", Center for Administrative Health Studies and Research and Anti-Corruption of the General Inspection Organization, Year 6, No. 49.
Proceedings of the Conference on the 100th Year of Legislation (2007), Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (2016), report entitled Tips on the system of payment of salaries and benefits of managers in the public sector, Deputy of Economic Research Offices: Public Sector Studies Legal Studies.
Malmiri Center, Ahmad; Mehdizadeh, Mehdi (2015), "Scattered Legislation in the Iranian Legislative System", Quarterly Journal of Public Law Research, Year 17, No. 47.
Masoumi Nia et al. (2004), Corruption, Tehran: Young Thought Center Publications.
Al-Moutian, Abolfazl (2010), "Introduction to the principles and rules of law revision", Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
Moazenzadegan, Hassan Ali; Rahdarpour, Hamed (1397), "The principle of transparency of law and its place in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and Criminal Law of Iran", Quarterly Journal of Judicial Law Perspectives, No. 81.
Economic Measures Research Institute (2002), Financial and Economic Corruption, Roots, Consequences, Prevention and Coping, Volume 3, First Edition.
Mehri, Maryam; Hadi Tabar, Ismail (2011), "Preventing the increase of economic crimes through transparency of election campaign expenses", Detective Magazine, Year 8, No. 32.
Maidarya, Ahmad and Khairkhah, Jafar, (2004), Good Governance, Development Foundation, Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
Nasiri, Morteza (2002), "Budgeting in Iran, Issues and Problems", Office of Program and Budget Studies, Parliamentary Research Center.
Waldron, Jeremy, (2009) "Principles of Legislation" translated by Hassan Vakilian, Constitutional Law, Year 6, Winter, No. 12.
Vakilian, Hassan (2011), "Theoretical foundations and methods of exercising oversight of the behavior of members of parliament", Quarterly Journal of Parliament and Strategy, 18th year, No. 68.
 
 
FOREIGN
Dyrberg, Peter (1999), current issues in the debate on public Access to documents: European law review.
Hawkes, Corina (2012), marketing food to children: the global regulatory environment, Switzerland: world health organization.
https://www.leader.ir
Shaman, David (2012), the meaning of transparency-A perspective, published on March 16.
Ssenyonjo, Manisuli (2009), ecinimic, social and cultural rights in international law, hart publishing.
Tanzi, V (1997). Corruption, Public investment and growth, international monetary fund working paper.
Tiwari, A.N (2004)., transparency and accountability in administration, Orissa review, 2004.
Wolfe, S. Worth, M. Dreyfus, S. Brown, AJ (2014), Whistleblower protection laws in G20, countries priorities for action, transparency international Australia.
Norton, Philip and Leston , Cristina, Bandeira,(2003) "The Impact of Democratic Practice on the Parliaments of Southern Europe", The Journal of Legislative Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2, Summer.
Bertok, Janos. Public sector transparency and accountability: making it happen. OECD, 2002.
Mergel, Ines. Social media in the public sector: A guide to participation, collaboration and transparency in the networked world. John Wiley & Sons, 2012.
https://www.isna.ir/news/92022617801/4
 
The Journal of Modern Research on Administrative Law
Volume 3, Issue 8 - Serial Number 8
Third Year, Eighth Issue, Fall 2021
Summer 2021
Pages 11-38

  • Receive Date 04 July 2021
  • Revise Date 24 July 2021
  • Accept Date 04 August 2021