RESEARCH LETTER OF POLITICAL SCIENSE
Year:2011 | Volume:6 | Issue:1 (21)|Papers Count:8

Political participation, as one type of participation, is considered as one of the indicators of social and political development. University students are one of the major social groups whose contribution in the process of society management and socio-political and cultural development seems necessary. Political participation of university students who are considered as the largest population group in developing countries and as the future administrators of the society, bears an especial importance in political stability and dynamism of the society. This paper seeks to study the relationship between religiosity and political participation of students of Isfahan University. We do a field research in order to collect our data. We studied 188 male and female students of Isfahan University among whom we distributed a questionnaire, the validity of which was measured by formal method and its reliability was measured through Cronbach`s Alpha test and the data was analyzed using SPSS software package. Dividing religion into two variables (religious-rituals and morality) along with considering two aspects of political participation i.e., psychological-theoretical factors and the manner of participation (formal or informal), some meaningful correlations between religious aspects and the rate of political participation of respondents may be observed. Findings showed that there is a direct correlation between religiosity and political participation. Based on such findings, a higher political participation may be expected in religious communities.

Political psychology of Nasir Al-din Shah who ruled Iran for fifty years in the sensitive period of transition to a new era, bears importance from different aspects. Studying his political character may be useful in understanding the socio-political developments of Qajar period. Using Karen Horney theory, this article surveys the political character and life cycle of Nasir Al-din Shah from his birth through his childhood, prince hood to kingdom. Our main hypothesis is that Nasir Al-din Shah had different personalities of misanthropy, succorance, populism and hegemonism in different periods of his political life. We have focused of features of any of these periods and their events as well as the determining facts in the psychological political aspect. The Iranian politics in the Nasirid period along with Nasir Al-din Shah’s spiritual changes have been changed. Due to personalization of the politics, his personal problems were reflected in the policy. Shah’s mental characteristics has not only affected the court but has also affected the entirety of Iranian society and its affairs.

For some historical reasons, the Pahlavi despotic political system could not rely on the legitimate bases of political power (religion, common law and law) in order to attain, protect and increase its power. In internal political environment, the political despotic regime relied on two foundations i.e., suppression and authoritarian possession of resources, in order to secure financial resources necessary for increasing government’s functions. In the international setting, the despotic rentier political system tried to attract the support of great powers in order to compensate the weakness it encountered in internal environment. The Nixon /Kissinger's doctrine in the foreign policy of the United States of America made it possible for the client actor to acquire its interests fully, in international environment, through dependence on a superpower. Stability in international structure, in such doctrine, emerged through regulating the mechanism of the balance of power. In such power equation, Iran, as a regional gendarme, helped to stabilize the international structure by decreasing the US security expenses. On the other hand, however, increasing the insecurity and internal suppression, it developed the revolutionary agent’s field of action. This article argues that the theoretical foundation of the structure of the balance of power, in the Nixon/Kissinger doctrine refers to the meta-theoretical paradox between the structure of balance of power and the revolutionary agent, based on which, the coming of the Islamic revolution in Iran and the broken bond between the General and the Gendarme can be studies.

This article investigates the issue of assigning the duty of religious exhortation and social supervision to government and its public execution using historical experiences. It is argued here that the interference by the government in executing the religious exhortation is inevitable and that there would be no progress without using governmental facilities and information, nevertheless, governmental view to such issue and its exclusivity to governmental and state methods would bring about unfavorable outcomes and may make this important religious, rational and valuable principle lead to conditions opposite to its objectives or lead it to a deadlock and seclusion. Some of such unfavorable outcomes include externalism, decrease in popular aspect of exhortation, extravagance in affairs, formation of the ground for tyranny and establishment of a false immunity.

Teachers are one source of social awareness and perform this important task in the schools. The purpose of this research is to investigate the social awareness of teachers as sources of awareness. In fact we want to assess the political awareness of teachers and their influence on participation (negative or positive) of other members of the society in the elections. Among the sociologists who have worked on this field, Lipset has studied behaviors and named several characteristics for each behavior. Ajzen and Fishbein believe that the received information can influence these behaviors. These theories are the basis for this research. The statistical population of the research is two educational districts of Isfahan city (districts1 and 3), a questionnaire of 31 questions was used and the data gathered was analyzed by SPSS.

The Pahlavi despotic semi-modern state was the first state formed in Iran in accordance to the theoretical model of John Frankopouji. In this state the bureaucratic institutions were formed and developed, power was concentrated and a modern army was established. Having full control over compelling and non-compelling sources, this state had an overall objective of power concentration and monopoly. The root in the formation of such state must be found in the socio-political changes in the Constitutional and post-Constitutional era. Contrary to European despotic states such as England and France where a new class could make a democratic society in a competitive environment parallel to the socio-economic and political modernization of state, since the state’s reliance on various classes prevented the despotic procedure of state and facilitated the passage stage to a democratic society, in the absence or weakness of such classes, the Pahlavi despotic state in Iran could finally have a more different form and nature than of European despotic states by an ever more concentrating of the power in the Court and by making a new army, a new bureaucracy and emphasizing the nationalist ideology. Despite some socio-economic, cultural and political modernizations, the context for transition to a democratic state and society was never provided in such state.

One of the most important factors for a state to acquire a satisfying level of development is the participation of its women in the social life of the country. Women not only play a significant role in social and political development of a country but also can increase the rate of economic development and social equity. Therefore, the participation of women in political and social organizations and playing roles equitable to those of men is a necessity in the current world and may facilitate social development. Studying the increase in the level of Iranian women's participation in different socio-political structures, this article seeks to first understand the main obstacles in this process and secondly shed light on the differences between men and women in acquiring governmental positions. To do this, we study the results of women job assessment in Imam Khomeini International University as an example of a governmental organization. This article also tends to find out why, in spite of the presence of highly educated women with adequate eligibilities according to the annual assessment of the performance of university directors, they still fail to occupy management positions and have an active participation in high levels of educational and executive decision making of the university.