Political Awareness of Students and their Changing Attitude towards the Political System: A Case Study of Esfahan University

Political order i.e. coordination of all components of a given political system is one of the main goals in any ideal society. This goal may be achieved if people in any political system perform their duties. This article seeks to survey the relationship between political awareness on the one hand and political legitimacy in the Iranian political system on the other. Our main finding is that though there is a strong correlation between these two factors in Iran. But the charismatic and rational types of legitimacy in Iran have been reinforced despite the modernization of the Iranian society. In other words, while Weber predicts the decline of charismatic legitimacy in the process of modernization, this has not happened in Iran. Of course, the strengthening of the rational type of legitimacy has resulted in the decline of the traditional type of legitimacy.