Collegiate Life-World and Its Role in Shaping Democratic Political Culture: a survey among the University of Tehran students

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Abstract

This article tries to examine student political culture and the role of socialization experiences, particularly the role of collegiate life-world, in shaping this culture. The theoretical approach is that the collegiate life-world as a new arena of socialization experience has relationship with shaping democratic political culture. Methodologically, this research is conducted using survey method and questionnaire distribution among undergraduate students at the University of Tehran. Given the problem and the type of questions, the “retrospective panel design” was used for collecting data. The results indicate that the students are “relatively” enjoying a democratic political culture, and the collegiate life-world has the highest rate comparing to other socialization factors in terms of being democratic. Through assessing the political culture of junior and senior students we can argue that the collegiate life-world produces democratic political culture. Those students having more collegiate life experience believe more in democracy and supporting it. They also believe more in democratic values

Keywords