Introduction: Cultural policy in Iran operates within a complex, multi-layered framework shaped by diverse cultural resources, actors, and stakeholders, whose often conflicting demands influence official policy. Contrary to reductionist perspectives that attribute cultural policy solely to state decisions, this study treats it as a dynamic process in which cultural resources, actors, and public demands continuously interact. Employing an analytical and institutionalist approach, the research examines how cultural resources-including national, Shiite, Islamic, modern, revolutionary, and postmodern cultures-are represented by different social groups and how policymakers respond. Findings indicate that traditional and religious actors, particularly the clergy and affiliated institutions, maintain relative dominance in shaping and transmitting cultural demands, while modern and postmodern currents are expanding their influence within the public sphere. Universities, students, and intellectuals advance modern cultural demands emphasizing civil rationality, academic freedoms, and secularized policy. Revolutionary institutions, including the military, the Basij, and ideologically aligned media, reinforce anti-imperialist and justice-oriented narratives. The postmodern generation, particularly youth and women leveraging digital platforms, introduces demands related to individual freedoms, gender equality, lifestyle, and social participation. The interplay among these actors creates a dynamic and contested cultural field in which discourses intersect, compete, and transform the public sphere. Effective cultural policy thus requires moving away from direct control, adopting a regulatory role, and fostering inclusive dialogue among all cultural stakeholders.
The first step in the public policy cycle involves analyzing the external environment, including resources, actors, and demands. Iran’s cultural environment is multi-layered, encompassing institutional, economic, and political contexts, as well as public spheres, discursive conflicts, collective identities, and active cultural agents. Iran’s long-standing historical civilization exhibits unique characteristics, with identity diversity at subnational (ethnic, local, tribal), national (language, history, rituals), and supranational (Islamic civilization, Shiism, Greater Iran) levels. This environment functions as a discursive space in which governmental institutions, civil society, and socially active groups interact and occasionally conflict in shaping and transmitting cultural demands. Despite extensive capacities, gaps exist in demand, supply, and governance. Social transformations, including the expansion of higher education, digital media, and globalization, have reshaped lifestyles, values, and identity formation, while centralized and security-oriented policymaking often fails to reflect actual cultural demands. Consequently, the research question focuses on how cultural resources and social group demands are represented and addressed by policymakers.
Method: An institutionalist approach is employed to analyze how formal and informal institutions shape cultural policy and transmit social demands to decision-makers. Institutions-including rules, norms, procedures, organizations, and historical practices-structure social and cultural relationships while enabling and constraining actor behavior. In Iran’s multi-layered cultural environment, institutionalism allows for the identification of each institution’s role in representing and transmitting cultural demands. Institutions analyzed include government organizations, civil society entities, and socially active groups that interact and sometimes conflict in the policymaking process. The approach examines bidirectional influences: institutions guide actor behavior, and actors, through cultural resources and capital, shape institutional processes. This includes both traditional and religious institutions, which dominate the representation of cultural demands, and modern and postmodern actors, whose influence is expanding but not yet fully reflected in decision-making.
Results:‌Cultural policy in Iran is a dynamic, cyclical, and multi-layered process. Traditional and religious actors, particularly the clergy and affiliated institutions, dominate the representation and transmission of cultural demands. Universities, students, and intellectuals convey modern cultural demands emphasizing civil rationality, academic and social freedoms, and secularized policy. Revolutionary institutions-including the military, the Basij, and aligned media-promote justice-oriented, anti-imperialist, and anti-Western narratives. The postmodern generation, including youth and women leveraging digital networks, introduces demands related to individual freedoms, lifestyle, gender equality, and social participation. Interactions among these actors produce a contested cultural field in which traditional, modern, revolutionary, and postmodern discourses intersect, compete, and transform the public sphere.
Discussion: Effective cultural policymaking in Iran requires recognition and integration of diverse and sometimes conflicting social demands. Policymakers must treat these inputs as active components of the policy cycle rather than ignore them. Cultural policy should reconcile traditional, modern, revolutionary, and postmodern rationalities within a flexible framework to prevent structural conflicts and cultural gaps. Institutional reform, expanded public participation, and diversified official cultural narratives are necessary. This research demonstrates that understanding the relationship between culture and policy in Iran requires analyzing cultural resources, actors, and public demands. Such an approach enables the design of responsive, adaptive, and balanced policies that bridge gaps between official policy and societal expectations while fostering interaction and dynamism among cultural actors and institutions.