Iranians and Political Participation: Critical Meta-analysis of Studies on the Political Participation in Iran

Political participation plays a critical role in establishment, preservation, and continuity of democracies. Therefore, a considerable amount of literature attempted to address factors contributing to the political participation. In this study, we tried to prepare a critical meta-analysis of internally published papers on the political participation through the mixed method. In this vein, according to the purposive sampling strategy, 13 papers were selected among papers published in the last decade at Iranian nation-wide journals. Our analysis on the main sections of selected papers including the definition of the dependent variable, theoretical foundations, and theoretical framework, show fundamental epistemological shortcomings in all parts. Most samples did not follow a coherent theoretical framework, while methodological problems seriously influenced the validity of their results. Regarding their findings, we conclude that the political openness and consequently the perception of effectiveness, as well as media and membership in the communities are the main incentives of conventional political participation, mainly voting; meanwhile, fatalism and feeling of powerlessness are recognized as obstacles.