Social Capital and Political Support: A Reassessment of the Putnam Thesis in East and West Germany

Abstract

A sizeable scholarly literature has generally uncovered weak, statistically trivial connections between social capital and political support, in spite of its logical appeal. Much of this research, however, has adopted an overly restrictive research design. It has overwhelmingly focused on the impact of social trust on political trust, from which broad inferences about the utility of the social capital perspective have been made. Rarely, however, has the impact of social capital been systematically assessed on indicators of political support which are more diffuse in character. Using data drawn from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS), the present study analyses the impact of different measures of social capital on political support in the Federal Republic of Germany. The results strongly support the conclusion that social capital influences diffuse support.

Notes

Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1963), p.320.

Robert D. Putnam, Susan J. Pharr and Russell J. Dalton, ‘Introduction: What's Troubling the Trilateral Democracies’, in Susan Pharr and Robert D. Putnam (eds), Disaffected Democracies: What's Troubling Trilateral Countries? (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), p.26; Russell J. Dalton, Democratic Challenges Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies. (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp.69–71.

Seymour Martin Lipset, Political Man (London: Heinemann, 1969), p.77; Harry Eckstein, Division and Cohesion in Democracy: A Study of Norway (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966), p.162.

David Easton, A Systems Analysis of Political Life (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1965), p.273.

Ibid.

Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), p.412.

David Easton, ‘A Re-Assessment of the Concept of Political Support’, British Journal of Political Science 5 (1975), p.436.

William T. Mishler and Richard Rose, ‘Trust, Distrust and Skepticism: Popular Evaluations of Civil and Political Institutions in Post-Communist Societies’, The Journal of Politics, 59/2 (1997), p.419; Ken Newton ‘Political Support: Social Capital, Civil Society and Political and Economic Performance’. Political Studies 54/4 (2006), p.868.

Richard Rose, William Mishler and Christian Haerpfer, Democracy and its Alternatives: Understanding Post-Communist Societies (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998), pp.95–196.

William Mishler and Richard Rose, ‘What are the Origins of Political Trust? Testing Institutional and Cultural Theories in Post-Communist Societies’. Comparative Political Studies 34/1 (2001), pp. 30–62.

Putnam, Bowling Alone, p.167; Francis Fukuyama, ‘The Primacy of Culture’, Journal of Democracy 6/1 (1995), p.7; Sigrid Roβteutscher, ‘Advocate or Reflection? Associations and Political Culture’, Political Studies, vol. 50 (2002), pp.514–5.

Rose et al., Democracy and its Alternatives: Understanding Post-Communist Societies, pp.34–5; William Mishler and Richard Rose ‘Trust, Distrust and Skepticism: Popular Evaluations of Civil and Political Institutions in Post-Communist Societies’, The Journal of Politics, 59/1 (1997), pp.419–20.

William Ross Campbell, ‘The Sources of Institutional Trust in East and West Germany: Civic Culture or Economic Performance?’, German Politics 13/3 (2004), p.415; Jan Delhey and Ken Newton, ‘Who Trusts: The Origins of Social Trust in Seven Societies’, European Societies 5/2 (2003), pp.93–137; Ken Newton and Pippa Norris, ‘Confidence in Public Institutions: Faith, Culture, or Performance?’, in Pharr and Putnam (eds), Disaffected Democracies, pp. 62–6.

Max Kaase, ‘Interpersonal Trust, Political Trust and Non-institutionalised Political Participation in Western Europe’, West European Politics, 22/3 (1999), p.13.

Ken Newton, ‘Social and Political Trust in Established Democracies’, in Pippa Norris (ed.), Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Governance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p.180; Ken Newton and Pippa Norris, ‘Confidence in Public Institutions: Faith, Culture, or Performance’, in Pharr and Putnam (eds), Disaffected Democracies, p.63.

Newton and Norris 2000, ‘Confidence in Public Institutions’, p.72.

Michael Foley and Bob Edwards, ‘Is it Time to Disinvest in Social Capital?’ Journal of Public Policy 19/2 (1999), p.162.

David Easton, A Systems Analysis of Political Life (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1965).

Helmut Wiesenthal, ‘Post-Unification Dissatisfaction, or Why Are So Many East Germans Unhappy with the New Political System’, German Politics, 7/2 (1998), pp.1–30. Robert Rohrschneider, Learning Democracy: Democratic and Economic Values in Unified Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999); Detlaf Pollack, ‘Trust in Institutions and the Urge to be Different: On Attitudinal Change in East Germany’, German Politics 8/3 (1999), pp.81–103; Jonathan Grix, ‘East German Political Attitudes: Socialist Legacies or Situational Factors: A False Antithesis’, German Politics, vol. 9/2 (2000), pp.109–24; Carston Zelle, ‘Socialist Heritage or Current Unemployment: Why Do the Evaluations of Democracy and Socialism Differ between East and West Germans?’, German Politics, vol. 8/1 (1999), pp.1–20. David P. Conradt, ‘Political Culture in Unified Germany: The First Ten Years’, German Politics and Society 20/2 (2002) pp.43–74.

D. Stolle and T. Rochon, ‘Are All Associations Alike? Member Diversity, Associational Type and the Creation of Social Capital’, American Behavioral Scientist 42/1 (1998), pp.43–6; Jan Van Deth, ‘Measuring Social Capital: Orthodoxies and Continuing Controversies’, International Journal of Social Research Methodology 6/1 (2003), pp.84–5.

Easton, A Systems Analysis of Political Life, p.175.

Hans-Dieter Klingemann, ‘Mapping Political Support in the 1990s: A Global Analysis’, in Norris (ed.), Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Governance, p.33.

Edward N. Muller, ‘The Representation of Citizens by Political Authorities: Consequences for Regime Support’, American Political Science Review 64/4 (1970), pp.1149–66.

E.N. Muller and T.O. Jukam, ‘On the Meaning of Political Support’. American Political Science Review 71/4 (1977), pp.1561–95.

A. Miller ‘Political Issues and Trust in Government’. American Political Science Review 68/3 (1974), p.970. J. Citrin, ‘Comment: The Political Relevance of Trust in Government’, American Political Science Review 68/3 (1974), p.975.

E.N. Muller ‘The Representation of Citizens by Political Authorities: Consequences for Regime Support’. American Political Science Review 64/4 (1970), pp.1149–66.

David Easton, ‘A Re-Assessment of the Concept of Political Support’, British Journal of Political Science 5/4 (1975), p.437.

Easton, A Systems Analysis of Political Life, p.268.

Ibid., pp.273–4.

Dennis Kavanagh, ‘Political Culture in Great Britain: The Decline of Civic Culture’, in Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba (eds), The Civic Culture Revisited (London: Sage, 1989), p.152.

Russell J. Dalton, Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies, third edition (London: Chatham House Publishers, 2002), p.238.

Easton, ‘A Re-Assessment of the Concept of Political Support’, 1975, p.445.

Christopher J. Anderson and Christine A. Guillory, ‘Political Institutions and Satisfaction with Democracy: A Cross-National Analysis of Consensus and Majoritarian Systems’, American Political Science Review 91/1 (1997), p.70.

Edward N. Muller, Thomas O. Jukam and Mitchell A. Seligson, ‘Diffuse Support and Antisystem Political Behavior: A Comparative Analysis’, American Journal of Political Science 26/2 (1982), pp.240–1.

Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations (Boston, MA.: Little, Brown and Company, 1963), p.429.

Christopher J. Anderson, ‘Good Questions, Dubious Inferences, and Bad Solutions: Some Further Thoughts on Satisfaction with Democracy’, Research Paper 116 (Binghamton Center for Democratic Performance, State University of New York, 2002, p.5); Damarys Canache, Jeffery J. Mondak and Mitchell A. Seligson, ‘Meaning and Measurement in Cross-National Research on Satisfaction with Democracy’, Public Opinion Quarterly 65 (2001), p.520; Manfred Kuechler, ‘The Dynamics of Mass Political Support in Western Europe: Methodological Problems and Preliminary Findings’, in Karlheinz Reif and Ronald Inglehart (eds), Eurobarometer: The Dynamics of European Public Opinion, Essays in Honour of Jacques-Rene Rabier (New York: St. Martin's, 1991), p.279.

Harold Clarke, Nitish Dutt and Allan Kornberg, ‘The Political Economy of Attitudes Toward Polity and Society in Western European Democracies’, Journal of Politics 55/3 (1993), pp.998–1021; Christopher J. Anderson, ‘Political Satisfaction in Old and New Democracies’, Research Paper (Center for Democratic Performance, Binghamton, New York: 1995), p.12.

Frederick Weil, ‘The Sources and Structure of Legitimation in Western Democracies: A Consolidated Model Tested with Time-Series Data in Six Countries Since World War II’, American Sociological Review 54 (October 1989), p.690; Dieter Fuchs, Giovanni Guidorossi and Palle Svensson, ‘Support for the Democratic System’, in Hans-Dieter Klingemann and Dieter Fuchs (eds), Beliefs in Citizens and the State (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995), pp.330–1.

David P. Conradt, ‘Political Culture and Identity: The Post-Unification Search for Inner Unity’, in Stephen Padgett, William E. Paterson and Gordon Smith (eds), Development in German Politics 3 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003), p.283.

Robert D. Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993).

Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman and Henry E. Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p.5.

Richard Rose and Craig Weller, ‘What Does Social Capital Add to Democratic Values?’, Studies in Public Policy no. 356 (Glasgow: Centre for the Study of Public Policy, University of Strathclyde, 2001), p.9.

Peter Hall, ‘Social Capital in Britain’, British Journal of Political Science 29 (1999), p.431.

James Gibson, ‘Social Networks and Civil Society in Processes of Democratization’, Studies in Public Policy no. 301 (Glasgow: Centre for the Study of Public Policy, University of Strathclyde, 1998), p.4.

Mark S. Granovetter, ‘The Strength of Weak Ties’, American Journal of Sociology 78/6 (1978), pp.1363–5.

These are: (1) IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt [Construction, Agriculture and Environment]; (2) IG Bergbau-Chemie-Energie [Mining Chemicals, Energy]; (3) Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft [Education and Science]; (4) IG Metall [Metalworkers]; (5) Gewrkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten [Food, Beverages and Catering]; (6) Gewerkschaft der Polizei [Police]; (7) Transnet [Transnet Railway Workers]; (8) Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft [United Service Workers].

Stephen Padgett, Organizing Democracy in Eastern Germany: Interest Groups in Post-Communist Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

As much of the existing literature demonstrates, both dependent variables lend themselves to Ordinary Least Squares Regression analysis. Standardised coefficients permit a comparison all of the coefficients in each analysis. Unstandardised coefficients, meanwhile, offer an easy interpretation of the effect of the independent variables upon the dependent variables.