Studying the Relationship between Social Trust and Political Participation; Case Study: Students of Isfahan University

Social trust is proposed as an important and effective variable in political participation in all communities. This research explored the relationship between different aspects of social trust and students’ political participation. At first theories of Putnam, Giddens, and Sztompka regarding the concept of trust and varied theoretical approaches to political participation were discussed and then four hypotheses were designed and tested. Considering the mentioned theories, four types of trust (interpersonal trust, generalized trust, trust in political institutions, and trust in political elites) and different approaches to political participation were explained in detail. Finally, a theoretical framework and a questionnaire were designed. The main hypothesis of research is about the relationship between the amount of social trust and political participation. The data were collected by distributing the questionnaire between 376 students in all grades at the University of Isfahan. The results showed that two variables of generalized trust with a 20 percent correlation coefficient, the trust in the political institutions with 18 percent, and the trust in elites with 23 percent have a positive significant relationship with political participation. After analyzing the data, two post-test hypotheses by dividing political and non-political political participation were designed and tested. The results of the Regression Test showed that the generalized trust explains 38 percent of the electoral political participation model and the variable “trust in elites” explains 14 percent of the non-electoral political participation model. The results of the exploratory factor analysis showed that three indicators which are elite accountability, elite honesty, and belief in efficiency of political institutions explain more than 85 percent of the amount of political participation.