Abstract
After briefly explaining why social capital (civil society) is important to democracy, Putnam devotes the bulk of this chapter to demonstrating social capital’s decline in the United States across the last quarter century. (See Putnam 1995 for a similar but more detailed argument.) While he acknowledges that the significance of a few countertrends is difficult to assess without further study, Putnam concludes that crucial factors such as social trust are eroding rapidly in the United States. He offers some possible explanations for this erosion and concludes by outlining the work needed to consider these possibilities more fully.
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References
Olson, M. 1982. The rise and decline of nations: Economic growth, stagflation, and social rigidities. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Putnam, R. 1993. Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Tocqueville, A. de. 1969. Democracy in America, edited by J. P. Maier, translated by G. Lawrence. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
Wuthnow, R. 1994. Sharing the journey: Support groups and America’s new quest for community. New York: The Free Press.
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© 2000 Lane Crothers and Charles Lockhart
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Putnam, R.D. (2000). Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital. In: Crothers, L., Lockhart, C. (eds) Culture and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62397-6_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62397-6_12
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-62399-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-62397-6
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