ABSTRACT
Putnam (1995a; 1995b) has famously argued that there have been decreases in the levels of social capital1 in the United States over the last 30 years or so, and that this ‘Bowling alone’ phenomena has led to an erosion of the ‘civil community’.2 Accordingly all of the facets which undergird the ‘civil community’ such as social trust, tolerance, generalized reciprocity are in decline. As Foley and Edwards (1996:41) point out, for Putnam civil associations are critical to the successful functioning of democracies: ‘Civil associations provide the “networks of civic engagement” within which reciprocity is learned and enforced, trust is generated, and communication and patterns of collective action are facilitated.’ High levels of trust are seen to be important, because the greater the levels of trust the less likely that citizens will behave ‘opportunistically’ (i.e. they are less likely to defect from cooperative collective action).
