The Role of Iranian Social and Political Capital after the Islamic Revolution of Iran (A Case Study: Academic Community in Tehran)

The purpose of this paper is to provide a sociological analysis of the effects of social capital on political development. According to theoretical expectations, "social capital" reinforces "political development". To test this theoretical proposition, "social capital" was broken down into three dimensions: "structural", "cognitive" and "communicative", which are divided into seven subscales - "networks", "relationships" and "cooperation", "values", "mutual understanding", "trust" and "commitment" were measured. "Political development" was measured by eight subscales with an emphasis on political participation. The method of this research is fuzzy Delphi. Data were collected using a questionnaire containing pairwise comparisons and scoring based on a five-point Likert scale. According to the results, social capital has different effects on different dimensions of political development, so that it has a differential effect on political participation. In particular, relations, cooperation, and social values play a more decisive role in "political campaigning" than in "political protest." On the other hand, any kind of "interference in changing the political structure" is more possible through "social trust" and "social commitment" than through "social networks". The most important point is that political development in the radical sense, which is aimed at making changes in the political structure, is possible by creating and strengthening social trust and commitment.