پژوهشنامه علوم سیاسی
سال هفتم شماره 4 (پیاپی 28، پاییز 1391)

Political participation as a kind of participation is considered as an index of social and political development in countries. One of the main groups of the society whose participation in the process of governing the society and political، social and cultural development seems essential، are students. Political participation of students who are counted as the biggest population group in developing countries and responsible for running the society، has a special importance in the political stability and dynamics of the society. The purpose of writing this paper is to study the relationship between the social capital and political participation of students in the University of Isfahan. Survey is the method of research in collecting and analyzing the data. This study is conducted on 188 male and female students of the University of Isfahan. Questionnaires are used to collect data، the validity of which is evaluated by formal methods and its reliability by Cronbach’s Alpha Statistics and data is analyzed through SPSS software. Having divided the social capital into three variables (social trust، social norms and social networks)، along with considering two aspects of political participation that is psychological-attitudinal factors and the method of participation (formal or informal)، it is observed that there is a meaningful correlation between aspects of social capital and rate of political participation of respondents.

The present paper describes and explains qualitatively the current Iranian society from the perspective of two “types” of movements. Based on this study، Iran has a notable potential for movement. This society hosts two “Macro” movements (“Popular-Religious-Anti-American” and “Democratic” movements). For the first movement، resources of the state are available besides resources of the society، while democratic movement interacts with ten slow progress- based movements. This essay shows that first of all، one effective way to discharge social movements is to strengthen democratic mechanism. Secondly، controlling democratic movement demonstrations in streets may be possible still it cannot be wiped out inside the society، because this movement is connected to such decuple movements continuing to exist in the context of people’s daily life in the society and is not easy to be wiped out

The purpose of this research is to study the impact of mass media use on the components of political culture among the students of Shiraz University. In this study، 430 college students are selected by stratified random sampling method. The statistical method used in this study includes multiple regression and path analysis where Amos software is used to estimate. Findings show a significant positive relationship between variables of religiosity and political culture. Also، there is a significant positive relationship between the use of radio، television، newspapers and magazines and three components of political culture (political values، beliefs and feelings). Also، there is a significant negative relationship between the Internet use and political beliefs and feelings. Also variable of use of the satellite have a significant negative relationship with political values، beliefs and political feelings. Each of these media has the greatest impact on the political feelings. Findings of the study also show that the components of political feelings، beliefs، values and knowledge have the most weight in forming political culture، respectively.

Democracy is considered as a form of political system to run a country which may be implemented in two general Direct Democracy where people govern their fate directly and Indirect Democracy where people decide over their affairs through a representative. Although for many reasons، direct democracy has been forgotten throughout the history، still many believe that considering the capabilities of information technology and its becoming universal، direct democracy may be revived. Through descriptive-analytical method and collecting various opinions، the present study attempts to investigate capabilities of the information technology to implement direct democracy، requirements and prerequisites to its realization as well as its application areas. Findings of this study indicate that having conditions and prerequisites realized in social، legal، security، administrative and technical aspects، the information technology can promise to implement direct democracy once again. Among areas where such important issue may be realized، we can point to direct involvement of citizens in the areas of direct lawmaking، supervising the good implementation of affairs، electing enforcement officials and agents.

Classifying theories of political trust into "cultural" and "institutional" is among methods of classification of such theories. In the cultural approach, any trust, including political trust, is deemed to be related to the process of socialization and culture of a society. At the micro level, the proponents of this approach argue that individuals who are raised to trust others will elicit more political trust. At the macro level, political trust is seen as an index of particular kinds of political culture. Institutional approaches, on the other hand, view political trust as an outcome of the way political institutions perform in a country (macro level) or people's perceptions of those institution's performances (micro level). In the present paper which is based on a survey of a representative sample of students across all universities in Tehran, both cultural and institutional approaches are tested and their respective explanatory powers are evaluated. Specifically, the following two hypotheses, derived from cultural and institutional approaches, were tested: 1. Individuals, who have learned through their socialization process to trust others more, are more likely to scores higher on a scale of political trust. 2. The more positive a person's perception of performance of political institutions, the higher the level of political trust that he/she may show. Both hypotheses were confirmed in this study. However, the institutional explanation (the second hypothesis) revealed a stronger correlation (Pearson's r = 0.75 and Spearman's Rho = 0.74) compared to the cultural hypothesis (r = 0.35 and Rho = 0.30). It was also found that religiosity correlates positively with political trust in our sample of students.

Considering the importance of the coup and its extensive impact on the history of societies، its comparative elaboration is very insightful. Especially، if different domestic and international parameters such as idiosyncrasy of coup junta، political parties، people attitudes، role of foreign powers، etc. are analyzed in a comparative perspective. This study seeks to examine in a comparative method the coups in Iran (1953)، Guatemala (1954) and Chile (1973) and will take into consideration both external and internal dimensions. Accordingly، in addition to the study of foreign factors’ role in the fall of Mosaddegh، Arbenz and Allende’s administrations، the theoretical approach of this article is based on Gabriel Almond''s theory on political system capabilities in coping with crises. Decline in a political system''s capability in coping with crises is a preliminary background for military coup to get momentum. This study، review the data through a descriptive-analytical method and based on a historical-comparative approach