Developing National Solidarity Strategies in Iran
Keywords:
National solidarity, moral security police, improving police performance, mutual communication between police and citizens, building trust in the policeAbstract
This study aimed to identify and formulate strategies for enhancing national solidarity within the Moral Security Police of the Islamic Republic of Iran. A mixed-methods design with a developmental orientation was adopted. In the qualitative phase, purposive sampling was used to select 17 experts from the police and academia specializing in sociology. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews until theoretical saturation was reached and analyzed using thematic analysis at three levels: basic, organizing, and overarching themes. In the quantitative phase, the statistical population comprised 730 personnel of the Moral Security Police in West and East Azerbaijan provinces, of whom 252 were selected using the Cochran formula. Data were collected via a questionnaire developed from the qualitative themes and analyzed using structural equation modeling in LISREL. Convergent and discriminant validity were confirmed, and reliability was supported with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.901. Second-order confirmatory factor analysis indicated that three overarching constructs—improving police performance (efficiency, effectiveness, citizens’ psychological peace, managerial characteristics, monitoring, ethics), building trust by the police (behavioral justice, public image of the police, altruism and empathy, institutional trust, police organizational citizenship behavior), and mutual communication with citizens (trust-based cooperation and public awareness)—had factor loadings above 0.5 and significant paths (t>1.96). Goodness-of-fit indices (RMSEA=0.049, GFI=0.93) confirmed the adequacy of the model. The study concludes that enhancing national solidarity in the Moral Security Police requires strengthening organizational performance, fostering sustainable trust-building, and promoting trust-based reciprocal engagement with citizens, which in turn reinforces social capital, reduces social unrest, and improves national security.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Alireza Mohammadi (Author); Yousef Beigzadeh; Abbasgholi Sangi Noorpour, Hossein Amari (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
