Social Capital according to Fukuyama's Negative Approach in Iran

Economists have paid ever-growing attention to the significant role of social capital in the development process of societies in the recent years and consider it as a development indicator. But there is no consensus on the definitions and theoretical concepts of social capital, and neither on the amount of its effectiveness on the growth and development process of the societies. Needless to mention, planning and policy-making in any field, including social capital, need scales and measurement though it would be difficult and complicated to formulate an indicator for social capital. Therefore, one of the trickiest shortcomings regarding the concept of social capital is the lack of consensus on how to measure it. Regardless of such limitations, this paper tries to survey the trend and status of social capital in Iran during the previous years through studying its evidences and effects on the society instead of trying to evaluate and measure the social capital indicators. In this way, firstly social capital in Iran is studied in within 1986-2004 by the use of Fukuyama’s alternative method. According to the results, it is estimated that social capital in Iran decreased within 1986-2002 and it increased during. 2002-2004 Later, the extent of Iran’s social capital in 2000 was studied using data gathered by Iranian Survey Project conducted by the National Projects Bureau of Iran’s Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry in the same year. Considering some assumptions, the social capital in that year was estimated to be in the average level. In the end, assuming the results of the study on the social capital trend in Iran to be correct, the amount of social capital was calculated for each year within 1986-2002 in proportion to that of 2000.