A Study of Political Trust Impact on Political Participation(A Case study of Student Members of the Islamic Association and the Student's Basij of Mazandaran University and Babol Noshirvani University of Technology)

This study tries to measure political trust and political participation among students who are members of the Islamic Association and the student's Basij of Mazandaran University and Babol Noshirvani University of Technology. In addition the impact of political trust on political participation tested and studied. The theoretical framework of the study is based on Putnam's theory on the impact of trust on participation and cooperation. The total number of study size were 400 students. Among them 200 active members were estimated as sample size through Cochran's formula and they were selected through disproportionate stratified sampling method. The data was gathered through questionnaire. The results show that the mean of political trust and political participation of student members of the student's Basij is higher than the mean of political trust and political participation of student members of the Islamic Association. There is a significant and positive relationship between political trust and political participation. The result of bivariate linear regression shows that the impact of political trust on political participation is significant and it explains 37 percent of political participation variation. Though the impact of political trust on political participation is significant among members of the Islamic Association but its impact on political participation is not significant among members of the student's Basij.