A Study on the Role of Structural and Communicational Dimensions of Social Capital in Political Participation Investigation (Case Study: Students of the University of Isfahan)

The studies of scholars show that social links and interactions have had a positive effect on political behavior. In this context, Tocqueville argues that development requires human capital in general and civil skills in particular. This paper is going to find whether social capital can also have the same effect on political development in general and political participation and behavior in particular. According to the logic of “weak ties”, organized participation through individual link with a wider range of people leads to increase in social capital among a group of citizens. Thus, when political participation increases among people it is finally conducive to increase cooperative activities among them. Accordingly, this study seeks to find the relationship between social networks and political behavior of the students. For testing the hypotheses regarding the relationship between social links and political participation, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used. Findings show that although the two dimensions of social capital (structural and communicational) have meaningful relationship with political participation dimensions (indifferent, formal and active), communicational social capital has more effect on political behavior of the students.