A new enemy at the gate: Tackling Iran’s water super-crisis by way of a transition from government to governance

Iran faces a water crisis so severe that much of its land has ceased to be productive. Since Iran has coped with water shortages for thousands of years, it would seem that something has been lost in the abandonment, over the past half-century or so, of traditional practices in favour of modern ones. A comparison of the socio-technical systems inherent in the traditional practices with those that accompany the modern ones reveals a striking loss of institutional plurality. It also suggests the remedy: a switch away from ‘government’ (in which state actors prescribe and firms, farms and households comply) to ‘governance’ (in which state actors are in two-way and constructive engagement with actors from both the market and civil society).