Ma`rifat Siyasi

Efforts to explain the concept of "political participation" and to determine its instances have faced shortcomings such as neglecting to address "participation" independently, as well as the intrusion of normative and methodological approaches into conceptual analysis. Therefore, any precise descriptive or normative study in the field of political participation is contingent upon the reconstruction of this concept, through identifying unwarranted definitional criteria that have been introduced and retrieving those that have been neglected. The most contested definitional criteria in defining political participation- namely, being "action", being "non-professional", and being "voluntary" - in fact arise from our understanding of “participation” and from how we have specified its three components: the focus (what one participates in), the agent, and the recipient of participation. Based on the analysis presented for identifying “participation,” and relying on the chosen understanding of the association of the modifier “political” with this concept—without adding any other qualifier with any motivation —the definition of “political participation” can be formulated as follows: "the conscious involvement of individuals in determining the political destiny of society, in accompanying others or with the intention of bringing them along." It seems that any expansion or narrowing of the concept of political participation - beyond or below what was presented - is considered an intervention of the concept of this social science term and requires specification of the agreed-upon framework and the creation of supplementary Convention.