The Role of Basij-Asatid in Training Political Elites and its Impact on Iran's Soft ‎Power ‎(a Case Study on Basij Professors of Shiraz Universities)‎

The main goal of this paper is to evaluate the impact of Basij-Asatid (Teachers Basij) on the generation of soft power of the Islamic Republic of Iran through training of political elite. The main question of the article is "What are the possible methods for the soft power of the Islamic Republic to be enhanced by Basij-Asatid and through training of political elites?" For this purpose, a survey approach has been used. The statistical population of the study consists of all faculty members of Shiraz universities. The sample size includes 375 professors selected through proportional sampling method based on the number and gender of professors. Data collecting tool is a researcher-made questionnaire with Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.98. The data are analyzed using SPSS software at two levels: At the first level using descriptive statistics methods (frequency, mean and standard deviation) and in the second level using inferential statistics (one-sample t-test and Friedman ranking test). The findings say that the average role of Basij-Asatid in increasing the soft power of Iran by training of political elites is 5.44 and higher than the low intensity limit for this factor (4), which confirms the decisive role of Basij-Asatid in increasing Iran's soft power. The results also show that the factor of "enhancing student Wilayat (Velâyat Paziri)" with an average of 4.7, is the most important and "increasing the student scientific abilities", with an average of 2.73, is the least important.