The state of social capital in Iran from the point of view political and social experts

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Political Science, Faculty of Political Science, Islamic Azad University, Shahreza Branch, Shahreza, Iran

Abstract

The present research, with the emphasis on the concept of social capital and its components, has tried to introduce its constituent elements, such as: the level of trust, cooperation, the expansion of social networks and participation, and in particular political participation, examines the state of social capital from the perspective of academic scholars in political science and social sciences. In this research, correlation analysis has been used quantitatively and qualitatively. In collecting information by documentary and library methods, focusing on interviewing the owners (university professors, sociologists and political experts) has been done. And by asking questions in three parts: first, the meaning of second social capital, the status of social capital, and the third, the context of this situation, to examine the concept of social capital in Iran. According to interviewees, the three characteristics of social trust, social cohesion, social participation are considered as the main elements of social capital. The undesirable and unfavorable state of social capital, the decline and decline of social trust are due to the reasons of social unreliability, structural corruption, neglect of civil institutions in Iran. Human development, reduction of structural corruption, political legitimacy through increased social capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Keywords