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Social Capital, community governance and political participation

This section is devoted to the relationship between social capital and civicness. According to the political science literature, social capital fosters a more active participation to community governance and stimulates political participation. Suggested readings are closely related to those collected in the section on Social capital and the institutions' performance.

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Essential Readings

• Badescu, G., Uslaner, E. (2003), Social Capital and Democratic Transition, London and New York, Routledge.

• Dekker, P., Uslaner, E.M. (2001), Social Capital and Participation in Everyday Life, London and New York, Routledge.

• Edwards, B., Foley, M.W., Diani, M. (eds) (2001), Beyond Tocqueville: Civil Society and the Social Capital Debate in Comparative Perspective, Lebanon, University Press of New England.

• Hooghe, M., Stolle, D. (eds) (2003), Generating Social Capital: Civil Society and Institutions in Comparative Perspective, New York, Palgrave.

• Mutz, D. (2002), Cross-cutting Social Networks: Testing Democratic Theory in Practice, American Political Science Review, 96(1), 111-126.

• Paxton, P. (2002), Social Capital and Democracy: An Interdependent Relationship, American Sociological Review, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Apr., 2002) , pp. 254-277.

• Putnam, R. (1993) Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton University Press, Princeton, trad. it. La tradizione civica nelle regioni italiane, Mondadori, Milano

• Putnam, R. (ed) (2002), Democracies in flux: The Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

• Robinson, J.A., Verdier, T. (2003), The Political Economy of Clientelism, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 3205.

• Sabatini, F. (2005), Social Capital, Public Spending and the Quality of Economic Development, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Public Economics. Paper accepted for presentation at the COE/JEPA (Center of Excellence / Japan Economic Policy Association) Joint International Conference, "Towards a New Economic Paradigm", Kobe, Japan, 17-18 December 2005.

• Uslaner, E. (1999), Democracy and Social Capital, in M. Warren, ed., Democracy and Trust, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

• Uslaner, E. (2002), The Moral Foundations of Trust, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

• Uslaner, E. (2003), Political Parties and Social Capital, Political Parties or Social Capital, in R.S. Katz and W.F. Crotty, eds., Handbook of Political Parties, Sage, forthcoming, 2004.

• Van Deth, J.W., Maraffi, M. Newton, K., Whitely, P.F. (eds) (1999), Social Capital and European Democracy, London, Routledge.

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Further Readings

• Benson, M., Rochon, T.R. (2004), Interpersonal Trust and the Magnitude of Protest, Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 37, No. 4, 435-457 (2004).

• Bilson, J.F. (1982), Civic Liberty: an Econometric Investigation, Kyklos, 35, 94-114.

• Booth, J., Bayer Richard, P. (1997), Civil Society, Political Capital and Democratization in Central America, Paper presented at the XXI International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Guadalajara, Mexico, April 17-19, 1997.

• Brehm, J., Rahn, W. (1997), Individual-Level evidence for the causes and consequences of Social Capital, American Journal of Political Science, 41, 3, 999-1023.

• Brown, R.K. (2003), Faith and Works: Church-Based Social Capital Resources and African American Political Activisim, Social Forces, Vol. 82, No. 2, December 2003, 617-641.

• Brown, M., Uslaner, E. (2002), Inequality, Trust and Political Engagement, Paper prepared for delivery at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, Ma.

• Carlson, N. (1999), The Rationality of Political Culture. Voter Turnout and Social Capital, Paper prepared for delivery at the 1999 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Atlanta Marriott Marquis and Atlanta Hilton and Towers, September 2-5, 1999.

• Carpenter, D., Esterling, K., Lazer, D. (2003), The Strength of Strong Ties. A Model of Contact-Making in Policy Networks with Evidence from U.S. Health Politics, Rationality and Society, Vol. 15, No. 4, 411-440 (2003).

• De Rosa, R. (2004), La funzione del capitale sociale nelle organizzazioni di partito, Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta di Roma, mimeo.

• Devika, J. (2005), Modernity with democracy?: Gender and governance in the people's planning campaign, Keralam, Working Paper 368, Centre for Development Studies.

• Farr, W.K., Lord, R.A., Wolfenbarger, J.L. (1998), Economic Freedom, Political Freedom and Economic Well-Being: a Causality Analysis, Cato Journal, 18, 2, 247-262.

• Fowler, J.H. (2005), Altruism and Political Participation, Department of Political Science, University of California, Davis.

• Freitag, M. (2003), Social Capital in (Dis)Similar Democracies: The Development of Generalized Trust in Japan and Switzerland, Comparative Political Studies, October 2003, vol. 36, no. 8, pp. 936-966(31).

• Frey, B. (2003), Direct Democracy for Transition Countries, Journal for Institutional Innovation, Development and Transition, Vol. 7, 2003.

• Gibson, J. (2001), Social Networks, Civil Society, and the Prospects for Consolidating Russia’s Democratic Transition, American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 45, No.1, pp. 51-68.

• Golden, M.A. (2003), Electoral Connections: The Effects of the Personal Vote on Political Patronage, Bureaucracy and Legislation in Postwar Italy, British Journal of Political Science (2003), 33:189-212.

• Hayoz, N., Sergeyev, V. (2003), Social networks in Russian politics, in Social Capital and the Transition to Democracy, Badescu, G. Uslaner, E. London: Routledge, 46-60.

• Herrera, H., Martinelli, C. (2005), Group Formation and Voter Participation, Department of Economics at the University of
Pennsylvania, mimeo.

• Hooghe, M., Stolle, D. (2003), Participation in Voluntary Associations and Value Indicators: The Effect of Current and Previous Participation Experiences, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, March 2003, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 47-69(23).

• Inglehart, R., Basanez, M., Moreno, A. (1998), Human Values and Beliefs: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook. Political, religious, sexual and economic norms in 43 societies. Findings from the 1990-93 World Values Survey, Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan Press.

• Jongwoo, H. (2002), Internet, Social Capital, and Democracy in the Information Age: Korea’s Defeat Movement, the Red Devils, Candle Light Anti-U.S. Demonstration, and Presidential Election during 2000-2002, Syracuse University, The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Unpublished Paper.

• Ken'ichi, I. (2002), Social Capital and Social Communication in Japan: Political Participation and Tolerance, Center for the Study of Democracy. Paper 02-05.

• La Porta, R., Lopez de Silanes, F., Schleifer, A., Vishny, R. (1997), Trust in Large Organizations, NBER Working Papers, No. 5864.

• Lara, N. (2005), Capital social, partidos polìticos y abstenciòn electoral. Perfil del abstencionista desde la óptica del capital social, Ergatorre Libros, Madrid.

• Letki, N. (2003), Explaining Political Participation in East-Central Europe: Social Capital, Democracy and the Communist Past, Studies in Public Policy Number 381, University of Strathclyde 2003.

• Letki, N. (2004), Socialization for Participation? Trust, Membership and Democratization in East-Central Europe, Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 4.

• Levi, M., Stoker, L. (2000), Political Trust and Trustworthiness, Annual Review of Political Science 3:475–508.

• Mutti, A. (2000), Particularism and the Modernization Process in Southern Italy, International Sociology, Vol. 15, No. 4, 579-590.

• Newton, K. (2001), Social Trust and Political Disaffection: Social Capital and Democracy, Paper prepared for the EURESCO Conference on Social Capital: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Exeter, 15-20 September 2001.

• Prakash, S., Selle, P. (eds) (2003), Investigating Social Capital: Comparative Perspectives on Civil Society, Participation and Governance, Sage India (in press).

• Rahn, W.M., Brehm, J., Carlson, N. (1999), National Elections as Institutions for Building Social Capital, in Morris, F. and T. Skocpol (Eds.), Civic Engagement in American Democracy: Frontiers of Theory and Research. 1999

• Rahn, W.M., Transue, J.E. (1998), Social Trust and Value Change: The Decline of Social Capital in American Youth, 1976–1995, Political Psychology 19, 545–565.

• Ray, C., Savage, M., Tampubolun, G., Warde, A., Longhurst, B., Tomlinson, M. (2003), The Exclusiveness of the Political Field: networks and political mobilization, Social Movement Studies, Volume 2, Number 1 / April 2003, 37-60.

• Rodriguez, F., Wagner, R., 2010. How Would your Kids Vote if I Open my
Doors? Evidence from Venezuela. United Nations Development Programme
Human Development Reports Research Paper 2009/40, August 2009.

• Rotemberg, J. (2005), Attitude-Dependent Altruism, Turnout and Voting, CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP5146.

• Seligson, A.L. (1999), Civic Association And Democratic Participation In Central America: A Test of the Putnam Thesis, Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 32, No. 3, 342-362 (1999).

• Sides, J. (1999), It Takes Two: The Reciprocal Relationship between Social Capital and Democracy, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Atlanta, September 2-5.

• Scholz, J.T. (2000), Trust, Taxes, and Compliance, in Braithwaite, V., Levi, M. (eds), Trust and Governance, New York, Russell Sage.

• Uslaner, E. (1998), Social Capital, Television, and the “Mean World”: Trust, Optimism, and Civic Participation, Political Psychology, v. 19 (September, 1998), pp. 441-467.

• Van Deth, J.W. (2001), The Proof of the Pudding: Social Capital, Democracy, and Citizenship, Paper prepared for the EURESCO Conference on Social Capital: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Exeter, 15-20 September 2001.

• Van Schaik, T. (2002), Social Capital in the European Values Study Surveys, paper prepared for the OECD-ONS International Conference on Social Capital Measurement, London, 2002.

• Verba, S., Nie, N., Kim, J.-O. (1978), Participation and Political Equality, New York, Cambridge University Press.

• Walston, J. (1988), The Mafia and clientelism : roads to Rome in post-war Calabria, London and New York, Routledge.

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