Investigating the Capacities of Rural Councils for Improved Participation of Rural Communities in the Elections of Khorramabad County in Iran

One of the active civic institutions in the villages is the rural councils, whose capacity and power can be used in the field of institutionalizing the political participation of the target community. Therefore, purpose of this study was identifying the capacities of rural councils to improve and modify the participation of rural communities in elections process in Khorramabad county of Iran and investigating how to benefit from them. the research method of this paper was the Grounded theory based on the Strauss and Corbin model. The target population of the study was the members of the rural councils of the county and experts related to the affairs of rural councils in the governorate and districts level of this county, from which eighteen persons were selected in a purposeful snowball sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect information, which was assessed by participants; also, in order to increase the credeiability of the research, an audit guide was prepared. The results showed that taking the necessary measures to strengthen the satuts of councils in the political area at the legislative and executive levels as well as revising the duties of the councils could pave the ground for a major change to increase the participation of rural communities in elections; in addition, "strengthening the spirit of participation and teamwork in rural areas", "involving councils in regional decisions" and "respecting the impartiality of council members towards candidates" could be effective and useful in this regard and lead to "increased participation of rural people in determining their destiny".