Investigating Citizen Participation and Its Role in Urban Management of Small Cities (Case studies: Galeh Dar, Varzaneh and Hidege)

Citizen participation in social affaires has been considered as the major element in studies on development during the last decade. Most of the population in Iran live in small cities. In this paper 3 small cities Galeh Daran, in Fars Province, Varzaneh in Esfehan province with and Hidege in Zanjan province have been selected as the sample. In this paper first a theoretical framework is drawn up through documental and librarian survey and using valid Persian and Latin sources; then the results of a relevant questionnaire are discussed. The sample included 255 citizens aged 16. With regard to results of this questionnaire it’s been clarified that on mental aspect, desire for partnership is very strong, there is also a very good vision toward participation in these cities. In explicit aspect of participation through people’s participation elements in organizations and urban institutes, attending in last elections and contribute with relations have been measured and found to be at a low level. Based on the results of correlation analysis applied on mental participation as the independent variable and people’s participation, it can be argued that there is meaningful relationship between these two variables; the necessary conditions for participation in city management in the three cities was also found to be very high.