Study of Relationship between Social Capital and Political Participation among Students of the University of Isfahan

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.