Democratic Political Culture among Iranian Generations (A Secondary Analysis of the World Values Survey (WVS) for Iran, Its Ethnics and Provinces)

The role of values of the masses in transition to democracy has become particularly salient in recent years. The conceptual genealogy indicates the emphasis of thinkers like Aristotle and Plato on the importance of the role of citizens’ values in policy, yet in recent decades the research on the ‘civic culture’ conducted by investigators such as Almond and Verba´s has increasingly directed attention to this phenomenon. The present study is carried out in the same way as those of the above, but has utilized more innovative ideas and experiences on the subject of values. Generally, political culture is based on the cultural and political ties and particularly, speaks about effects of culture, beliefs and values on policy in the society. Larry Diamond has reminded that "since democracy requires a set of political values and orientations of citizens such as balance, tolerance, civility, efficiency, knowledge and participation, political culture is considered as a major contributor in strengthening of democracy" (1999:161). Ronald Inglehart argues that, currently culture plays a more vital role over than the past two decades of literature of democracy. In his view, economic development leads to gradual changes in the culture; so that people increasingly demand democratic institutions and they are going to be more supportive for democracy (Inglehart 2000: 6-95). From the Paradigmatic perspective, among the political culture studies, three main approaches can be separated: Legitimacy approach (System-support approach), Communitarians approach (Social Capital approach) and the Human Development approach (Emancipative approach) (Inglehart and Welzel, 2009: 572).Some advocates of the legitimacy approach view democracy as a limited set of institutional mechanisms which regulate the official policy. In this approach, democracy does not require democrat citizens. It is sufficient to have a majority who trust these institutions in a satisfactory level and prefer democracy to other alternative systems of government. Two other approaches (Communitarians and Human Development approaches), follow the tradition of civic culture school. From their point of view, efficiency of democracy requires a wide range of citizenship values. Communitarians approach emphasizes the values which link citizens to daily life and strengthen their loyalty to the community (Bell, 1993: 82-85). They emphasize volunteer activities and interpersonal trust as the general context in which democracy can flourish. Thinkers of Human Development believe that one of the important aspects of the civic values is self-expression values. Ronald Inglehart and colleagues changing the formulation of the Modernization theory, insist on the importance of self-expression values on the reinforcing of democratic institutions (1389, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2009).In the political realm, the growth of post-industrial value, leads to loss of respect for authority and growing emphasis on participation and self-expression. These trends are the beginning of democracy in authoritarian societies and an origin for elite-challenging in the relatively democratic societies. According to Inglehart and Welzel's theory, the type of political culture appropriate with effective or formal democracy, involves Human Development syndromes or self-expression values, or in other words "emancipative values"(Welzel and Inglehart, 2009: 132). In the decades of 60 and 70, youth and relations between generations as a social phenomenon attract attention of analysts and experts of social problems. Karl Mannheim was the first theorist who introduced the concept of generation. This concept was utilized to study the development of conservative thought in modern societies. In Mannheim view, the rapid changes in environment and technological alteration play an important role in intensifying the intellectual and cultural differences between generations (Lavar, 1373: 190). As Inglehart and his colleagues express, one of the most important trends of intergenerational substitution occurs in the domain of transition from traditional values to self- expression values or the more generally transition from materialistic values to post-materialistic values. They consider actions like "increasing in elite-challenging forms of civic action", "strive towards gender equality" and "tolerant attitude to another" is going to be much more common among the younger generation and be regarded as normal action. In Iran, concern for democracy dates back to the Constitutional Revolution, about one hundred years ago. After that, many historical opportunities for democratization have occurred and this trend has continued to the present time. On the other hand, since the social, political and cultural values and norms of the society survive through transmission from generation to generation, so it could be said that survival of any society depends on the flow of cultural transmission in that community. Indeed, the Culture and Civilization of any society survives via intergenerational interactions. Therefore, democratic values as all values and beliefs will be conveyed to next generations; however this movement might be a salutatory transmission. Accordingly, this study attempts to answer these questions: - Similarities and differences between the three generations (young, middle aged and old) in terms of democratic political culture at national level. - Similarities and differences between the three generations in terms of democratic political culture at sub-national level. Methods and Material: This Study is based on secondary analysis. The Structural equation modeling with Amos Graphics was utilized to test the reliability of the main model (democratic political culture or Self-Expression values model) and confirmation of the theoretical model. In preparing data for structural equation modeling and testing the main hypothesis, SPSS software was also used. The statistical population of this study include the whole country of Iran and the unit of analysis is its ethnics and provinces. The utilized data was obtained from World Values Survey (WVS), wave 2005, which had been accomplished in Iran with 2667 samples.In this study, the measurement model of the main construct of self-expression values was contained four latent variables, including post-materialism values, autonomy, gender equality and tolerance. Since, the final score for autonomy and post-materialism variables were calculated in the survey data set; they were utilized as observed variables in the research model. Also, reliability and credibility of gender equality, tolerance variables and entire model were evaluated, distinctively. Ultimately, factor loading for each of the variables in political culture model were specified by credit assessment with the structural equation modeling.All data of survey were entered in to the political culture model as they were integrated at the provincial and ethnical level and being standardized (standardized Z scores). Variables with low factor loading or unacceptable fitness were excluded from the measurement model in the final model. Discussion of Results & Younger generation (29-15) achieved a higher mean than the two previous generations in terms of democratic values. Except gender equality, men got better grades in all indices of self- expression values than women, but in their final grade women gained higher mean. In ethnical ranking, Kurds achieved much higher results than other ethnics. After Kurds, Fars, lur, Gilak and Turk tandem come. Finally, in provincial ranking, those with Kurdish Language include Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Western Azarbayjan was located at the top of the table and at the bottom, respectively, and these provinces came: Zanjan, Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Ardabil and Hamedan. Moreover, no significant difference between the two generations of middle-aged and older were found among the studied ethnic groups; even though the general trend keeps its ascending order and average of each generation is more than prior generation. Importance of the distinctive life experiences in different generations has led to non-homogeneous effects and it can be seen in the results of this study, it can provide distinction between generations in terms of belief and behavior.