EVALUATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND IDENTIFYING ITS DETERMINANTS IN URBAN COMMUNITIES (Case Study: Lamerd City)

The inclusive political participation of citizens in various matters is one of the symbols of the existence of democracy and the legitimacy of the sovereignty of a country that it has multiple dimensions. Participation in elections is one of the most important aspects of political participation that is enhanced by improving the status of other aspects of political participation and identifying and strengthening the factors that influence it. The purpose of this quantitative and applied research which has been done by descriptive_analytical and correlation method, is to evaluate the political participation and its indicators as well as identify its determinants among the citizens of Lamerd city in Fars province. All citizens 18 years old and over who are eligible to vote, constitute the statistical population of the survey which according to the results of the last census were 19595 persons. The main instrument of research for data collection was a researcher made questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed. Due to the limitations of the census, using the Cochran formula, 378 individuals were considered as statistical sample and the questionnaires were distributed among the citizens completely randomly. The results show that the highest and the lowest political participation of citizens in the two variables of voting and writing political articles were 4.26 and 2.32, respectively. The results of the survey of the general situation of political participation of citizens show that the calculated average is 3.131 above the average. Also the results of correlation analysis between dependent and independent variables of research showed that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between political participation and socioeconomic variables, sense of political efficiency and effectiveness, use of internal media, quality of life, satisfaction with government performance, social capital, use of social networks and political awareness. And there is a significant negative relationship between the use of foreign media and the level of political participation. The results also showed that there is no significant relationship between the variables of age, sex, marital status and degree of religious affiliation with political participation.

The formation of civil society as a specific social phenomenon is subject to a set of specific objective and mental conditions that are created themselves by long-term social transformations at a specific stage in the history of society. therefore,  civil society cannot be achieved at will, at any time and in any social context, and  should  to consider, obtain the right to choose, the right to be elected and the right to hold public office as essential rights for participation in the political life of society in order to achieve civil society.  citizens of Lamerd as one of the cities of Fars province, during the past decades, have had a high rate and percentage of participation in various levels of elections (local, regional and national) as one of the most important components of political participation. Since political participation is of various dimensions and participation in elections is only one of its dimensions, it is important to explanation the other aspects of political participation among citizens. It should be noted that there are numerous political, social, economic, and cultural factors that can contribute to increasing or decreasing the rate of political participation. according to the above mentioned content, the main questions that the researchers in this study seek explanation are: how is the status of political participation among citizens living in Lamerd? what are the most important determinants of political participation among the citizens of Lamerd?

  This research is applied in terms of methodological divisions, of purpose and in terms of descriptive-analytical and causal research method and is used for gathering information and data required by both documentary and field methods. and the statistical population of the study consists of all people over 18 years old, according to the latest documented statistics, 19595 people. to consider the limitations of the census, 378 individuals were considered as the statistical population using the conventional methods of estimating sample size (Cochran formula). descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis by SPSS software.

Investigating the Status of Indicators of Political Participation among Citizens The results show that among the mentioned indicators, the highest and the lowest political participation of citizens in the two variables of voting and writing political articles were 4.26 and 2.32, respectively. Overall, the results show that half of the indices surveyed were below average and the other half were above average, and overall judgment on the degree of political participation of citizens in the study area should be left to the overall assessment of political participation.The results of the frequency distribution table show (Table 3) that the political participation rate was 11.9% of the citizens at low and very low levels, 28% at moderate level and 54.3% at high and very high levels. Also, the results of the single sample t-test show (Table 4) that the calculated mean with 3.131, at 99% confidence level, is more than the base number. Overall, it can be stated that the level of political participation of citizens in the study area is above average and is at an acceptable level.Investigating the relationship between independent research variables and citizens' political participation. the results show that among the variables studied are the relationship between variables of socioeconomic status, political awareness, social capital, use of internal media, foreign media, satisfaction with government performance, sense of political efficacy and effectiveness, use of social networks, and quality of life with political participation was significant relationship and there was no significant relationship between the variables of age, gender, married status and degree of religious affiliation with political participation. It should be noted that among the variables that had a significant relationship with the political participation of the citizens, the only correlation between the variable of use of foreign media with the political participation was negative and the other variables had a positive correlation with the political participation. That is to say, as citizens' use of foreign media increases, their political participation decreases, and vice versa. It should be noted that the highest correlation of political participation with the two variables of social economic base and the feeling of political efficiency and effectiveness were 0.557 and 0.513, respectively, indicating a significant correlation between these two variables with citizens' political participation.      

the results of the study of the overall status of citizen participation in the study area showed that overall the level of political participation of citizens is above average and is at an acceptable level. The results are consistent with the findings of Hashemi et al. (2009), Jafarinia (2012), Jahangiri and Mohammadi (2014), Athari and Shahriari (2014), Habibpour Gottabi and Mousavi Khorshidi (1395), Abdollahinejad et al (1395), Ahmadi And Rezaei, (2015), Mohammadifar et al. (2015), Shapiro and Winters (2008), Flavin and Kane (2012) and Ebrahimi Kiyapi et al. (1977). Regarding the negative relationship between the use of foreign media and political participation, the present study is in line with the results of Rezaei and Kazemipour Sabet's (2016) research. The results also showed that there is no significant relationship between the variables of age, sex, married status and degree of religious affiliation with political participation, which is in line with Jafarinia (2012).