A Philosophical, Ethical and Sociological Reflection on Political Trust and Self-Confidence: The Case of Students’ Poltical Participation at the Islamic Azad University of Zanjan

Abstract

Given the fact that people behave as they think, this article posits that political trust and political self-confidence as the fundamental factors of the thought of political ethics in their mental and objective combination in the world politics increase hard, original and bottom-up political participation and provide the basis for good governance. Based on the insights from the positive paradigm and political sociology, this study investigated a sample of 380 students selected from among the population of students at the Islamic Azad University of Zanjan in order to address the whys and hows of the students' tendency toward political participation. The sample was randomly chosen according to the stratified (52% males and 48% females) and cluster (universities →faculties →departments) sampling methods. The data was collected via a 50-item questionnaire developed by the researchers. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire was established through employing expert judgment and calculating the Cronbach alpha (α=.88), respectively. The results revealed the mean scores of 6.1 and 4.1 for the participants' political participation and political confidence and self-confidence, respectively. The correlation and regression results explained for 82 percent of the shared variance for the students' political participation.