Alternative public service delivery mechanisms in Iran

This paper pursues two related goals. First, it develops a framework for examining the fit between a country's political and institutional circumstances and the mechanisms for delivering public services. Second, the paper applies the framework to the case of Iran and shows that it is operational and promising. Analyzing the match between service delivery arrangements and the economic and institutional characteristics of the country is important because the arrangements that are successful in some countries do not seem to do well in some countries. The case study of Iran sheds light on how an important set of public foundations engaged in welfare services operate in the country and how they compare with NGOs and standard government bureaus active in the same areas.