American Behavioral Scientist current issue

Introduction: Civicness, Equality, and Democracy--A "Dark Side" of Social Capital?

van Deth, J. W., Zmerli, S. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:33:42 PST

Debates about social capital usually focus on its presumed positive consequences. Although this expectation has been corroborated empirically, in many instances some less benign consequences of social capital have also been uncovered. Several explanations for the emergence and consequences of these "dark sides" of social capital are briefly presented here and, subsequently, put to empirical testing. The contributors to this issue of American Behavioral Scientist have a common understanding of these dark sides of social capital. Conceptualizing them as negative consequences or outcomes, the authors use various research strategies to scrutinize the nature of the effects of social capital in various situations. In each analysis, however, particular focus is placed on the importance of the contextual setting. Special attention is paid to the degree of democratization, the postcommunist legacy, different welfare state regimes, the saliency of political cleavages, and types and interconnectedness of voluntary associations. The findings suggest that the specific consequences of social capital largely depend on political and social conditions.

Participation in Voluntary Associations: Dark Shades in a Sunny World?

van Deth, J. W. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:33:42 PST

The benevolent consequences of social capital are clearly related to membership in voluntary associations. Irrespective of the type of association, members in voluntary associations in 19 European democracies show higher levels of satisfaction with democracy and higher levels of political engagement than nonmembers. "Bad" forms of social capital are not widely spread among voluntary associations, but potentially any type of association can be depicted as a "bad" form of social capital. In particular, religious organizations frequently appear as an example of "bad" social capital. Because this last conclusion is related to political saliency, only a few "dark shades" in the mainly sunny world of voluntary associations in Europe can be observed.

Social Capital and Norms of Citizenship: An Ambiguous Relationship?

Zmerli, S. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:33:42 PST

From a theoretical viewpoint, the consequences of social capital for norms of citizenship are usually perceived as benign. However, empirical evidence indicates that its impact may be detrimental. To investigate this phenomenon further, this article examines the specific nature of the relationships among social involvement, social trust, and four different types of norms of citizenship. Social capital acts on these norms in two different ways. First, it varies with the specific norms of citizenship. Second, the different components of social capital do not necessarily exert similar effects. In this article, the negative and significant relationships between social trust and norms of social order are revealed, indicating the "dark sides" of social capital. This finding challenges the common wisdom about the positive interrelationship between social capital and a citizenry’s public spiritedness in a democratic state.

Social Capital, Welfare State, and Political Legitimacy

Albano, R., Barbera, F. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:33:42 PST

In this article, the authors use the concept of negative social capital to address the contextual impact of micro mechanisms explaining political legitimacy. They first illustrate the effect of social capital with regard to its negative consequences. Then they select four countries, each one a case study of a different welfare regime, and measure the distribution of "time given helping others." The helping behavior is interpreted as a credit slip in social capital vocabulary, and its effect on the confidence in democracy in different welfare regimes is measured. The research findings suggest that helping behavior in weaker welfare regimes has detrimental consequences for political legitimacy. The results are consistent both in a cross-country and in a within-country comparison.

The Saliency of Political Cleavages and the "Dark Sides" of Social Capital: Evidence From Spain

Garcia Albacete, G. M. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:33:42 PST

This article explores the effects that a salient political center—periphery cleavage has on the structure (social networks) and outcomes (political attitudes) of social capital. The comparison of different regions within the same country supports the thesis that social capital is a reflection of the context in which it takes place. In this framework, social capital undermines equal representation of citizens’ identities. Second, political fragmentation is reproduced by the existence of more bonding than bridging social capital. Finally, it allows for the identification of scenarios in which involvement in informal social networks leads to both positive and negative consequences for citizens’ attitudes toward politics.

Voluntary Associations and Tolerance: An Ambiguous Relationship

Iglic, H. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:33:42 PST

In the debate on social capital, it is usually assumed that membership in voluntary associations is highly beneficial for the formation of civic values among the association’s affiliates. Despite these theoretical expectations, comparative studies have so far found only a weak statistical relationship between associational involvement and tolerance in Western democracies and a nonsignificant or even negative relationship in the case of Eastern and Central European countries. In this article, the author further investigates the negative relationship between associational involvement and attitudes of social and political tolerance, the "dark side" of social capital. The author shows that when members of voluntary associations build particularized trust rather than generalized trust, this decreases their already low levels of social tolerance. Such situations are especially common in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Associational involvement also has negative effects on political tolerance. Associations are social contexts within which processes of interpersonal influence and political mobilization take place. This results in the reinforcement of civic as well as uncivic orientations of associational members.

Social Capital Worldwide: Potential for Democratization or Stabilizer of Authoritarian Rule?

Rossteutscher, S. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:33:42 PST

The notion of social capital has gained enthusiastic support from nongovernmental organizations, intergovernmental confederations, and supranational bodies such as the European Union, the World Bank, and the United Nations. They all believe that social capital might be a potent aid for democratization, for repairing defective democracies, and for undermining authoritarian regimes. This article examines whether social capital has such positive effects in countries where democracy is not yet established. Does social capital help in a country’s move toward democratization, or is the link between democracy and social capital more dubious? Does social capital even contribute to the stabilization of nondemocratic regimes? This article analyzes 70 countries that participated in the third wave of the World Values Survey. The results are clear: Social capital functions as a stabilizer of authoritarian rule. Its effects are mainly negative. Social trust, in particular, might be a "key resource for the market economy and democratic politics" (Stolle, 2003, p. 19). In nondemocratic contexts, however, it appears to throw a spanner in the works of democratization. Social participation and trust, specifically, increase the stability of nondemocratic leadership by generating popular support, by suppressing regime-threatening forms of protest activity, and by nourishing undemocratic ideals of governance.

Bonding Social Capital in a Postcommunist Region

Kaminska, M. E. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:33:42 PST

Social capital is acknowledged as an important factor in local economies. However, depending on their specific characteristics, social capital resources may have both positive and negative effects on socioeconomic development: The outcomes are related to whether the local contexts are endowed with bonding or bridging social capital. This article investigates the impact of the bonding social capital present in a local production system in the Polish region of Lodz. The findings reveal that although the "rise and demise" of this local economy cannot be ascribed only to the quality of social capital, bonding social capital brought positive results in the form of rapid economic growth of the local companies and neutralizing the effects of the post-1989 crisis. It has subsequently hampered cooperative behavior, impeded learning and unlearning, and finally contributed to the incapacity of the local production system to adapt to new market economy conditions. Bonding social capital resources originating from the communist period have been further reproduced through local economic governance mechanisms, heavily influenced by the shadow economy.