THE STUDY OF ELECTORAL BEHAVIOR OF TEHRAN CITIZENS - CASE STUDY: TEHRAN CITY COUNCIL

Election is the collective participation of a population in political, social, economic and cultural decision-making processes based upon rationality, the result of which shows the demands and values of a nation in the light of their political culture. This paper tries to study the electoral behavior of Tehran citizens by focusing on Tehran City Council. Regarding a sea change in the electoral behavior of Tehran’s voters in recent election, this study adopted this approach to understand whether this shift in the political behavior and attitude of Tehran citizens has been occurred over time, consciously, integrated and organized or it is shaped suddenly, unconsciously, spontaneous and sporadic for a short period of time. The analysis of the biographical details of 79 members of Tehran City Council in four elections and 60 representatives of Islamic Consultative Assembly from Tehran constituency (9th and 10th elections) showed that the changing pattern of political culture and attitude of people residing in Tehran rooted from rational choice and cognitive theories is related to perception and a gradual change of political culture and it is expected to be continued in the 5th election of Tehran City Council resulting in the relative superiority of reformist parties.