With about 22 million inhabitants, rural areas of Iran contain 29% of the population
in the country in 2011. During the past two decades, rural development policies of
the government have aimed to improve the living conditions in rural areas. One of
these policies was the preparation and implementation of rural guide plans which
mainly have tried to organize the physical development within the villages. Even
though a great number of rural guide plans have been prepared over the past years, a
small number of them have been put into action, mainly because of the shortage of
financial resources. Also the success of implemented plans has not been the same
within the villages. The main objective of this research is, therefore, to analyze the
influencing factors in the success of executed rural guide plans in the east of Guilan
Province, Iran