Assessing the Relationship between Trust and Membership in Voluntary Associations and Political Culture of University Students: Case Study, Shiraz University

The aim of this research is to answer this basic question: How much have the political culture of university students (attitudes, beliefs and participatory behaviors) been influenced by the extent of their trust and membership in social associations (social capital)? The research method was survey with questionnaires and statistical population was all of Shiraz University students with 373 individuals as a sample. The important findings of this research are: 1. According to multivariate step- by -step regression test, trust and membership in voluntary associations and collaborative tendencies have had a 50 percent impact on the student's orientation to civic and democratic culture (attitudes and participatory behavior). 2. In bivariate test with Pearson correlation, the correlation between trust, collaborative tendencies and former membership in social associations and the political culture of students have been verified. 3. The research’s hypotheses related to control variables such as religion, educational course and educational grade have not been verified. In sum, the total finding of this research is that the students who enjoy a higher degree of social capital are more tended to civic and democratic culture than others and get distant from traditional political culture.