Can theories of social capital explain dissenting patterns of engagement in the new Europe?

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Professors Stephen White, Margot Light and Roy Allison for the permission to use the 2004 ‘Inclusion without Membership’ survey data; and to UACES (Study Group S013) for financial support of the current project.

Notes

1. Czech and Slovak Republics, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia.

2. This also included an attempt to constitutionalize EU politics formally. The proposed constitution was ratified by twelve member states and rejected by two (France and Holland) in 2005. The remainder agreed to delay further ratification until 2006–7.

3. H. Grabbe, The EU's Transformative Power: Europeanization through Conditionality in Central and Eastern Europe, Basingstoke, 2006, pp. 4–5.

4. R. Prodi, ‘A Wider Europe—A Proximity Policy as the Key to Stability’, SPEECH/02/619, VI ECSA World Conference, ‘Peace, Security and Stability International Dialogue and the Role of the EU’, Brussels, 5–6 December 2002.

5. See European Security Strategy, December 2003, pp. 7–9. Available online at:<http://ue.eu.int/uedocs/cmsUpload/78367.pdf> (accessed 29 March 2006).

6. The prime examples include decision-making on the war in Iraq, ratification of the EU constitution and discussion of the EU budget.

7. See the article by Bogutcaia et al. in this issue for more details (pp. 117–137).

8. T. Schabert, ‘Power, Legitimacy and Truth: Reflections on the Impossibility to Legitimise Legitimations of Political Order’, in A. Moulakis (ed.), Legitimacy, Berlin, 1986, p. 102.

9. See Candidate Countries Eurobarometer (CCEB) 2003.5: Identities and Values in the Accession and Candidate countries. Full Report, Brussels, 2004 (see Appendix).

10. Grabbe, 2006, op. cit., p. 1; C. McManus-Czubińska et al., ‘The Misuse of Referendums in Post-Communist Europe’, in D. Hutcheson and E. Korosteleva (eds), The Quality of Democracy in Post-Communist Europe, London/New York, 2006, pp. 56–80.

11. J. Smith, ‘Introduction’, in J. Smith and C. Jenkins, Through the Paper Curtain: Insiders and Outsiders in the New Europe, London, 2003, pp. 1–14.

12. L. Hanifan, The Community Center, Boston, 1920; J. Dewey, The School and Society, Chicago, 1915. For more details on the history of the concept, see J. Farr, ‘Social Capital: a Conceptual History’, Political Theory, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2004, pp. 6–33.

13. Hanifan, 1920, op. cit., p. 32.

14. G. Loury, ‘Why Should We Care About Group Inequality?’, Social Philosophy and Policy, Vol. 5, 1987, pp. 249–71; G. Loury, ‘A Dynamic Theory of Racial Income Differences’, in P. Wallace and A. Lamond (eds), Women, Minorities and Employment Discrimination, Lexington, 1978, pp. 153–88.

15. P. Bourdieu, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, Chicago, 1992; P. Bourdieu, ‘Forms of Capital’, in J. Richardson (ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, New York, 1983, pp. 241–58.

16. J. Coleman, Foundations of Social Theory, Cambridge, MA, 1990.

17. R. Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton, 1993a; R. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, New York, 2000. More recent comparative research can be found R. Putnam (ed.), Democracies in Flux: The Evaluation of Social Capital in Contemporary Society, Oxford, 2004.

18. Putnam, 1993a, op. cit., p. 167.

19. The ‘EU-15’ comprises the pre-May 2004 EU member states.

20. Candidate and accession countries have been excluded from the analysis due to the exigencies of space.

21. Satisfaction is interpreted here as a regime ‘performance indicator’ rather a measure of citizens' commitment to democracy per se.

22. Eurobarometer 2003.5; Eurobarometer 36, 1991; Central and East European Barometer 2, 1991.

23. For a fuller picture see P. Norris, Making Democracy Work: Social Capital and Civic Engagement in 47 Societies, paper for EURESCO conference, University of Exeter, 15–20 September 2001; T. Kostadinova, ‘Voter Turnout Dynamics in Post-Communist Europe’, European Journal of Political Research, Vol. 42, No. 6, 2003, pp. 741–59; M. Franklin, Voter Turnout and the Dynamics of Electoral Competition in Established Democracies since 1945, Cambridge, 2004.

24. P. Norris, Democratic Phoenix: Reinventing Political Activism, Cambridge, 2002, pp. 47–8; P. Mair, ‘In the Aggregate: Mass Electoral Behaviours in Western Europe: 1950-2000’, in H. Keman (ed.), Comparative Democratic Politics: A Guide to Contemporary Theory and Research, London, 2002, pp. 122–43.

25. Social Indicators, Research Paper 06/02, 12 January 2006, House of Commons Library, pp. 20–1.

26. Kostadinova, 2003, op. cit.

27. ‘The Polish Elections: For a Perkier Poland’, The Economist, 29 September 2005, pp. 4–6.

28. S. White, R. Rose and I. McAllister, How Russia Votes, London, 1997, p. 39; Central Electoral Commission of the Russian Federation, Vybory Prezidenta Rossiiskoi Federatsii. 2000. Elektoral'naya statistika, Moscow, 2000, p. 174; Rossiiskaya Gazeta, 20 December 2003, p. 1; and ibid., 24 March 2004, p. 9.

29. For more information see <www.cvk.gov.ua> (accessed 16 March 2006).

30. Authorities in Belarus used various mechanisms to boost turnout figures. For more information see E. Korosteleva, ‘Why Belarus is Unique: Explaining Institutional and Electoral Allegiances’, in K. Elo and K. Ruutu (eds), Russia and the CIS—Janus-Faced Democracies, Helsinki, 2005, pp. 89–107.

31. Sovetskaya Belarussiya, 22 December 1995, pp. 2–3; Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Belarus website (available online at <www.rec.gov.by>, accessed 29 March 2006).

32. M. Howard, The Weakness of Civil Society in Post-communist Europe, Cambridge, 2003.

33. Ibid., pp. 11–12, 62.

34. ‘Inclusion without Membership’ Surveys, 2004 (see Appendix for further details).

35. According to the author's calculation, in the applicant states 50% of respondents trusted the army and 66% in EU-15; the second most trusted institution in Central and Eastern Europe was the church (48%). The police (67%) had the highest trust among the EU-15. For more information see <http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/services/index.html> (accessed 26 March 2006).

36. As corroborated by calculations from the WVS, 1999–2002: 64% trusted the church and 62% the army—twice as many as any other institution.

37. NISEPI survey, September 2005.

38. See E. Korosteleva, ‘The Quality of Democracy in Belarus and Ukraine’ in Hutcheson and Korosteleva, 2006, op. cit., pp. 122–42.

39. R. Jackman and R. Miller, ‘Social Capital and Politics’, Annual Review of Political Science, Vol. 1, 1998, pp. 47–73; N. Letki and G. Evans, ‘Endogenizing Social Trust: Democratization in East-Central Europe’, British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 35, No. 3, 2005, pp. 515–29.

40. R. Putnam, ‘The Prosperous Community’, The American Prospect Online, March 1993b, pp. 1–6 (p. 6).

41. Putnam, 1993a, op. cit., pp. 172–3.

42. Ibid., p. 181

43. Norris, 2001, op. cit., p. 3.

44. Putnam, 1993b, op. cit., p. 3

45. Indeed, President Putin has frequently talked about the need to construct stronger vertical links between different levels of executive power in Russia—see, for example, his 2000 address to the Federal Assembly: V. Putin, ‘Poslanie Federal'nomu Sobraniyu Rossiiskoi Federatsii’, 8 July 2000. Transcript available online at:<http://www.kremlin.ru/text/appears/2000/07/28782.shtml> (accessed 18 March 2006).

46. The results of the Ukrainian parliamentary elections in March 2006 conferred victory on Viktor Yanukovich's party, despite his defeat in the Orange Revolution less than fifteen months previously.

47. For more details see Korosteleva, 2006, op. cit.

48. J. Coleman, ‘Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital’, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 94(s), 1989, pp. s95–120; J. Coleman, 1990, op.cit.; Bourdieu, 1983, op. cit.

49. Letki and Evans, 2005, op. cit.; E. Muller and M. Seligson, ‘Civic Culture and Democracy: The Question of Causal Relationships’, American Political Science Review, Vol. 88, No. 3, 1994, pp. 635–52; S. Rose-Ackerman, ‘Trust and Honesty in Post-Socialist Societies’, KYKLOS, Vol. 54, 2001, pp. 415–44; M. Hoogle and D. Stolle (eds), Generating Social Capital: Civil Society and Institutions in Comparative Perspective, New York, 2003.

50. Muller and Seligson, 1994, op. cit., p. 647.

51. Letki and Evans, 2005, op. cit., p. 525. This corresponds with the findings of Christian Haerpfer, who, when calculating the index of democracy in post-communist societies, concluded that despite its authoritarian regime, Belarus in 1998 had 41% of the electorate professing democratic values, which was higher than in the Baltic states and on a par with some members of the EU (C. Haerpfer, Democracy and Enlargement in Post-Communist Europe, London/New York, 2002, p. 44).

52. Letki and Evans, 2005, op. cit., p. 525.

53. Haerpfer, 2002, op. cit., pp.40–6.

54. P. Norris, 2001, op. cit., pp. 10–11 and appendices; Letki and Evans, 2005, op. cit., pp. 520–1.

55. M. Aberg, ‘Putnam's Social Capital Theory Goes East: a Case Study of Western Ukraine and L'viv’, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 52, No. 2, 2000, pp. 295–317.

56. Ibid., p. 309.

57. ‘Blat’ in its modern connotation is defined as ‘illicit protection, patronage’ (Slovar' Russkogo Literaturnogo Yazyka, Vol. 2, Moscow, 1950).

58. W. Miller, Å. Grædeland and T. Koshechkina, A Culture of Corruption? Coping with Government in Post-Communist Europe, New York/Budapest, 2001.

59. Between 10 000 (available online at:<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4823800.stm>, accessed 29 March 2006) and 30 000 people (<http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2006/03/19/pushka>, accessed 29 March 2006) demonstrated during 19–20 March 2006, the days after the presidential election in Belarus, signifying the first such large-scale mass event in Belarus' post-communist history.

60. Over 500 people were detained in Belarus as a result of peaceful demonstrations on Independence Day on 25 March 2006, with two-thirds of them receiving up to 15-day jail sentences.

61. From Amnesty International 2004 Annual Report, available online at:<http://web.amnesty.org/report2004/blr-summary-eng>, accessed October 2005, and author's private sources.

62. Letki and Evans, 2005, op. cit., p. 525.