Electoral participation in Iran: direct and indirect effects of social media through values of liberation and secularism

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Isfahan

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Education (PhD in Political Sociology), Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Abstract

Although political participation has different levels, it seems that participation in elections has become the most important element of political participation in the Islamic Republic of Iran for various reasons. Therefore, it seems that the study and explanation of electoral participation is one of the important academic topics in Iran. In this regard, the aim of this research is to investigate the direct and indirect effects of social media, through the mediating variables of values of liberation and secularism, on electoral participation. In this research, which is considered a type of secondary analysis, the seventh wave of international data of the WVS World Values Survey has been used in the case of Iran. The findings of this research show that although social media did not directly have any significant effect on electoral participation, they can indirectly and through the mediating variables of liberation and secularism values significantly reduce participation citizens' election.

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