Investigating the relationship between social factors and the level of political awareness of women in Garami city

Dissertation for Master's degree

in the field of social sciences

Abstract:

The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between social factors and the level of political awareness of women in the city of Garami.

The research method in this study is a survey, and the statistical population includes all women 20 years and older in the city of Garami, which is about 9127 people and according to Morgan's sample size, there are 368 Some of these women have been selected as samples. The random sampling method is simple. The data were collected by questionnaires made by the researcher and designed in the form of a Likert scale. The reliability of the questionnaire was measured using Cronbach's alpha. spss software and statistical tests of Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficient, one-way analysis of variance, regression analysis and path analysis were used to measure the model and test the hypotheses. Among the social factors, four factors (the amount of use of mass media, employment status, level of education and level of communication with peers) were selected as independent variables and the level of political awareness of the studied women as the dependent variable. According to the findings of the research, there is a relationship between the amount of use of mass media and the amount of political awareness. A higher level of education increases the level of political awareness. There is a relationship between the level of communication with the peer group and the level of political awareness of women. And there is a strong and direct relationship between women's employment outside the home and their level of political awareness. Another result that we calculated separately from the hypothesis test is the level of political awareness of women in the sample group, which is average. According to the results of the regression analysis, about 96.3 percent of the political awareness of the studied women is explained by what variables (the amount of media use, the amount of communication with peers, the level of education and employment status).

Key words: social factors, political awareness, peer group, mass media. 

Introduction

Undoubtedly, one of the issues that has played an important and fundamental role since the beginning of human life and has caused various societies to rise and fall is the issue of awareness and knowledge of the social and political environment around them. Political awareness includes perceptions and evaluation of specific political issues or political personalities and events (Dawson, 2012). This consciousness and vision is dynamic and idealizing and creative, which can be read in the general meaning of ideology, human self-awareness, social and historical awareness, science of perfection and leadership, revolutionary and transformative consciousness, scholastic and professional understanding, ideal understanding and social mission. Political awareness is a special knowledge above science and technology (Zakaryai, 2016). In other words, the meaning of political awareness here is the citizens' awareness, information and knowledge about concepts such as government, nation, politics, government, power, authority, legitimacy, political influence, etc., which will prepare them as much as possible to achieve the dignity of citizenship in a democratic society. The level of political awareness of people is a powerful engine that has a significant impact on the prosperity of a society. People who are aware of political issues do not allow incompetent and oppressive people to rule, nor do they allow officials to violate their responsibilities in the course of government, and they warn the executive officials with their constructive criticisms, and they do not let certain people act instead of the interests of the majority, the interests and welfare of the minority. Therefore, the existence of organizations, associations and, in a stronger form, parties in each country is a sign of the maturity and political growth of the people of that country (Falah, 2008). He also says that political analysis is a very important thing in a correct and stimulating way. The mind must be cultivated. The difficult time of every revolution is the time when right and wrong are mixed together (Mahdavi, 2009). In line with the importance of political awareness in popular governments and that people should have enough knowledge of politics to be decent citizens, Carpini and Kiter argue that informed citizens are more likely to participate in politics, and they can better recognize their personal interests, they can better relate their personal interests to specific thoughts and ideas about the world of politics..

In line with the importance of political awareness in popular governments and that people should have enough knowledge of politics to be decent citizens, Carpini and Kiter argue that informed citizens are more likely to participate in politics, and they are better able to recognize their personal interests, they are better able to connect their individual interests with specific thoughts and ideas about the world of politics, they are likely to have thoughts that have sufficient coherence and remain stable over time, and most likely They relate their thoughts to their political participation in rational and meaningful ways. According to them, the more informed citizens are, the more likely they are to exhibit other desirable citizenship features and conditions, such as political tolerance (Daily, Carpini and Kiter 1996).

Based on this, it can be said that political awareness is a weapon that transforms people's potential power into actual power. Politically ignorant people have power, but this power is stagnant and not used. People's political awareness opens a channel for the flow of people's power. The basic question is how to give people political awareness? In other words, how will the quiet, evasive and inactive people become vocal, responsible and active people by being equipped with the weapon of political awareness?

1-1- Statement of the problem

Since Plato and Aristotle discussed the political awareness of the people for the first time, it has become clear that popular governments need citizens who are willing to participate. Citizens whose knowledge, competence and characteristics are not suitable for non-people systems (Marsh and Olson, 2000). Today, this assumption is accepted, in order for citizens to be able to express their preferences and choose their representatives in a more favorable way, they must have minimal knowledge about the political system (Naimi and Jun, 1998). In fact, one of the important effects of political awareness in participatory systems is that citizens use various tools and mechanisms to control elected officials to prevent them from abusing their power and to hold them accountable to the people. Some of the most important of these strategies are: institutionally limiting the scope of government activity, distributing government power among various agents, creating completely independent companies and agents, guaranteeing political and civil liberties, and creating competitive elections. In general, the accepted hypothesis is that citizens should have enough information about politics and public issues to hold politicians accountable for their behavior in office. If citizens lack this basic feature, that is, knowledge of political and public issues, then it must be said that the government based on people's vote and opinion is an uncertain plan. In line with the importance of political awareness in popular governments and that people must have sufficient knowledge of politics to be decent citizens, Daly, Carpini and Kiter argue that "informed citizens are more likely to participate in politics, and they can better recognize their personal interests, they can better their individual benefit with special thoughts and ideas." communicate about the world of politics, they are likely to have thoughts that have sufficient coherence and remain stable over time, and they are likely to relate their thoughts to their political participation in a rational and meaningful way. According to them, the more informed citizens are, the more likely they are to exhibit other desirable citizenship features and conditions, such as political tolerance (Delli-Carpini and Kiter, 1996).

Researches in the field of political awareness in European and American countries, with the increasing interest of researchers and politicians in whether the decrease in dissatisfaction and opposition reported by young people towards politics, indicates a new generational phenomenon (for example, are today's youth, compared to previous generations, more Disillusioned?), or that the wheel of life theory can still be valid, originated. On the one hand, generational theories believe that many attitudes are formed at the beginning of life and remain relatively stable over time (Alvin and Scott, 1996), on the other hand, the idea of ??the political life cycle believes that interest in political activities increases with age and responsibility (Butler and Stokes, 1969). In this regard, it is argued that today's youth, like their previous generations, will acquire an interest in politics as they age, because from then on, politics will become more relevant to their lives. (Jovnell & Park, 1998) and along with financial and family responsibilities, interest in politics will also increase (Richardson, 1990; White, Brooke & Ritchie, 2000). From the point of view of these researchers, the low levels of youth interest in politics are more related to changes in the socio-economic environment in which young people live than to generational changes.