Analyzing the Influence of Social Networks on Political Participation (Case Study: Iran and Russia) 2010-2020

Political participation is a feature and characteristic of civil society. Today, political participation in the form of electoral participation, which is the most important indicator of the political development of nations, has become inevitable. Social networks are one of the most important tools for conveying political concepts and participation, and all political systems in this article are a case study of Iran and Russia are trying to take it and have full control over it and transfer their opinions to the people through using them. Given the growing importance of virtual social networks in the political and social developments of societies, the question of the present study is: what role virtual social networks (in this study, Facebook, Twitter and Telegram) play in deepening political participation of and shaping political behavior of people in Iran and Russia? In answer to this question, it is hypothesized that social networks have played an accelerating role in deepening political participation by facilitating and accelerating communication between society and political elites, so that social networks provide this opportunity to the Iranians and Russians to gain up-to-date information on policies and circumvent government restrictions. Accordingly, the authors of the article, using the views of Verba and Putnam, and in a qualitative way, will try to explain the effect of people's membership in social networks on the level of political participation of Iranian and Russian citizens.