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Introduction: The major goal of this study is political participation, highlighting the role of social trust. In fact, how social trust and political participation are united is analyzed and assessed. Since political participation is one of the key traits in social and political progress, influential factors need to be pointed out indeed. So the main focus of this study is to find the relationship between social trust and political participation. In addition to trust, five other basic variables have been concentrated on by the researcher. These include gender, age, education, marital status, and mental class. The theoretical framework is according to the comments of Lipst, Almond and Verba, Engleheart, Nelson and Huntington, etc. Political participation is the entry into the arena that has led to the fulfillment of a collective will or hinders its realization. Michael Rush sees political participation as being involved in various levels of an activity in the political system, from non-conflict to having a political official. The fundamental idea behind the participation is to accept the principle of equality of people, and its purpose is to promote intellectual, cooperative, and collaborative efforts to improve the quality and quantity of life in all social, economic, and political fields. In this study, in order to measure the impact of social trust on political participation, a combination of theories of social scientists and sociologists has been taken into consideration. In his book entitled Political Person, Lipst explains political participation. In the book, he tries to explain the political participation of individuals,groups, and social groups based on several general social determinants, using his own sociological model. In his opinion, people participate in the following: 1. Their interests are heavily exposed to government policies, such as dependence on the government as its employee, if they are not exposed to economic constraints or have moral-religious values affected by government policies. 2. Access to information that identifies the relationship between political decisions, interests, and their interests, such as the direct and obvious effects of government policies, job training, empirical general insight, and leisure time are among the most influential factors. 3. People vote if they are exposed to social pressures; pressures, such as deprivation and alienation, the strength of the political class organization, and the level of social contact. 4. Finally, the crossover pressures, that is, individuals do not vote for the compulsion and pressure of the political parties, which have opposing interests, in different directions and in different ways, providing different information. Inglehtar also explains the increase in participation by promoting education and political information, changing the norms governing women’s participation and changing value priorities. In his view, the variables of formal education, socioeconomic status, skill levels,information, communication skills, career experience, organizational networks, and the reduction of sexual differences in social and political tasks affect the increase in participation. Giddens mentions the three dynamics of modernity, the titles of the separation of time and place, from rebelliousness and appropriation. These factors have changed the model of trust in contemporary modern society; he mentions the impact of communication systems (media) on the formation of micro-level characteristics, trust in the process of socialization and personal identity, the trust of individuals in abstract and political systems, mechanisms in the current world, and the main areas of trust in a traditional world that either destroyed or neglected the traditional kinship system, local community, and religion. According to Putnam, the commonplace traditions and norms in society, including trust and cooperation are among the most important determinants of political participation. In some areas of the world where civil traditions, with trust in interpersonal relations and high public confidence, are witnessing active political participation, but political partnerships  also decrease in the areas where the norms of trust and cooperation are low. Thus, trust, both among individuals and in the political trust of individuals in government, is shaped by factors, such as the rethinking process and the impact of information,the access and use of a variety of media, and other mechanisms in the modern society. Robert Putnam pointed to the fluctuations of political participation in social capital, where social trust was one of the important dimensions of Putnam’s definition of social capital. Thus, Putnam’s theory as one of the most appropriate theories in this field can provide a coherent framework for analyzing the relationship between social trust and political participation.
Method: This study is among those surveying research studies that use questionnaires to collect data. The subjects were the people of Gorgan, and 407 of them were chosen as a sample and the proper classes were chosen and studied using random sampling. To confirm the variable credit of the study, the formal credit method was used. Besides, the fixity of the tools was also calculated by the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, which are respectively 782 and 780 for social trust and political participation.
Findings: The findings of this study show that the average level of political participation is 825.2 out of 5. The level of social trust of the responses was also average. The average of political participation of men was more than that of women, and that of the married was found to be more than the single. The highest political participation was between the 50 to 59 year-old people. The result of all these theories showed that there is a positive relationship among social trust and its aspects (institutional trust, public trust and people trust) together with political participation with its aspects (election behavior and active participation). The results of regression analysis show that generally 061.0% of the changes in variables is assessed via other variables, like social trust, age, sex, marital status, and education.
Discussion: According to the results, when people trust the government, institutions and organs become active participants in political incidence and happenings. As the social trust increases in the society, people participate more inpolitical events. Besides, as shown by the findings, political participation is influenced by peopl’s relationship and their trust among family members, friends, and relatives, resulting in an active or inactive participantion.
 

Keywords: Social trust, Public trust, Institutional trust, Personal trust

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