This article deals with the continuation of Iran's economic underdevelopment from the perspective of institutionalism. Over the centuries, Iran has experienced various political systems, but despite the decline and emergence of successive political systems, it still suffers from economic underdevelopment. Therefore, in this article, the main question of the research is proposed as follows: What are the fundamental factors that have caused the continuation of Iran's unfavorable performance in the economic field? In response, this hypothesis has been proposed that the limited access order and the lack of transition to the open access order is the fundamental factor explaining the continuation of Iran's unfavorable economic performance. The research method in this article is the historical method and the method of data collection is library. The findings of the article show that the order of limited access has affected Iran's incentive system over the centuries in a way that, rather than encouraging creativity, innovation and work, it has encouraged rent-seeking and the growth of individuals at the expense of the whole. This explains the lack of synergism of the achievements with the overall interests and as a result the continuation of Iran's unfavorable economic performance. In other words, throughout history, the dominant political groups have had the opportunity to change the motivational structure of the whole in the direction of general prosperity or organize it for their own interests at the expense of the whole, and the first model has not been adopted.