This study examines the role of governments during the Second Pahlavi era in designing and implementing economic and social development programs. Employing a descriptive-analytical method, it finds that government development strategies were grounded in modernization theory and an outward-oriented approach. These strategies were reflected in the First to Fifth Development Plans through industrial and regional development, land reform, a focus on oil, the prioritization of military development over social and economic development, efforts to attract foreign investment, urbanization, and increased attention to women’s role in development. However, several obstacles prevented the realization of long-term development objectives. These included government control over the private sector and the exclusion of nongovernmental social actors from meaningful participation; trickle-down growth and widening class disparities; increasing corruption; the growing adoption of exogenous and imitative approaches to development; unbalanced urban development and high rates of rural-to-urban migration; and insufficient progress toward established targets in agriculture, literacy, and women’s participation in development. Consequently, governments during the Second Pahlavi era failed to achieve their long-term economic and social development goals.