The current politics of Iran, authoritarianism and democratization, civil society and NGO, and public policy.
Background & Qualification
Dr Mohsen Moheimany received his PhD in 2019 from the School of Law and Government, DCU. He also holds an MA in Public Policy from Nottingham University, United Kingdom (2012). His dissertation was entitled “An evaluation of the role of NGOs in public participation in local policy making in Iran”.
Doctoral Research
The trajectory of confrontation between civil society and state in Iran has gone through different stages of contestation and conflicts during the last five years. The current Iranian political system, the Islamic Republic of Iran, as a hybrid regime, creates political opportunities for advocacy NGOs depending on the level of government, the policy sector, and the ideology of the national presidency. Variations in these factors create fundamentally different types of policy networks in different policy sectors, which present advocacy NGOs with different constraints and chances. Within every policy networks, there is a different scope for political entrepreneurship by advocacy NGOs to change the policies in a given sector. The policy actions and influence of advocacy NGOs within the policy sectors vary depending on the type of policy network in the policy area, which is largely set by the three factors mentioned above. This argument is sustained by case studies of policy networks at local and national levels, the women-rights and environmental-protection policy sectors, and across the politically Liberal government of Khatami (1997-2005) and the Conservative government of Ahmadinejad (2005-2013).
Supervisor: Professor Iain McMenamin
Courses Taught
2013/2014: Tutor for ‘Research Methods’ module, 1st years BA students in International Relations.