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Statement of the problem: In this article relationship between social trust and civil society (with emphasis on voluntary associations) is empirically examined. In addition, this article attempts to answer this question: what kind of relationship is there between voluntary associations membership and social trust? Method: 457 students of Mazandaran University were chosen and the questionnaires were distributed among them according to proportionate stratified sampling. Findings: Members of voluntary associations did not have higher social trust compared with non-members, but the members of these associations, had higher civil society variables (awareness of social news, satisfaction of life, reciprocity norms and positive attitude toward law enforcement) and fewer non-civil society variables (insecurity, feeling of opportunism and feeling of alienation) and this variables had relationship with social trust. Results: voluntary associations are important for having more civil society variables (such as reciprocity norms and positive attitude toward law enforcement) and less non-civil society variables (such as feeling of insecurity and feeling of alienation) but since civil society variables were in low level and non-civil society variables were in high level, voluntary associations could not show high level of social trust directly.

Keywords: social capital, social trust, civil society, voluntary associations

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