Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one !

Outline and Study Guide for Bowling Alone

I. INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1: Thinking about Social Change in America
A. Club Membership Diminishing
- NAACP membership declined from 2,500 to a few hundred in the 1990s
- From 1970s to present, community groups began to fade
- Community organizations no longer continuously revitalized
- An increase of leisure time, 1960s to present
- Voter turnout predicted to be nearly 70% and rising by 1976
- 1964: 77% felt increased condence in their neighbors
- America in Life: white, straight, Christian, comfortable, andmale.
- Education the best predictor of engagement in civic life
- 1970s a bright future is predicted
B. Changes
Social Capital Theory
- Physical capital physical objects (a screwdriver)
- Human capital properties of individuals (a college education)
- Social capital connections among individuals (social networks)
- Individual aspect a private face
- Collective aspect a public face
- Term Social Capital independently invented at least six times
- Form connections that benet our own interests
- Spillover effect (e.g. A poorly connected individual may derive some benets from living in a well-connected community)
- Social capital can be both a private good and a public good
- Reciprocity: If you dont go to somebodys funeral, they wont come to yours. Yogi Berra
- Reciprocity specic, Ill do this for you if you do that for me.
- Generalized Ill do this for you without expecting anything specic back from you
Society based on generalized reciprocity is best
- Social capital has many different shapes and sizes with many different uses
- Social capital may be directed toward malevolent, antisocial purposes (e.g. Timothy McVeigh)
- Bridging inclusive better for linkage to external assets and for information diffusion (sociological WD-40)
- Bonding exclusive, good for undergirding specic reciprocity and mobilizing solidarity (sociological superglue)
C. Social Capital (contd)
- Community vs. individualism
- National myths often exaggerate the role of individual heroes and understate the importance of collective effort (e.g. Paul Revere)
- Poll 1987: 53% thought parents generation better in terms of being a concerned citizen, involved with helping others in the com-
munity
- 21% thought their own generation was better
- 77% thought nation was worse off because of less involvement in community activities
- Ups and downs in civic engagement (not just downs)
D. The Evolving Social Climate
- Follow the two source rule (in this text)
- Civic engagement comes in many sizes and shapes
- Dominant theme: rst 2/3 of twentieth century, deep engagement in life of their communitieslast 1/3, tide has reversed
II. TRENDS IN CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND SOCIAL CAPITAL
Chapter 2: Political Participation
A. Involvement with Politics and Government
- Excepting voting, Americans compare favorably with other democracies in terms of political participation
- 1960 62.8% of voting-age Americans went to the polls
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one 2
- 1996 48.9% of voting-age Americans went to the polls
- Easier to vote Registration requirements have relaxed Motor voter registration
- African Americans in South were disenfranchised for a time (poll taxes, literacy tests, fraud, violence)
- Civil Rights movement of 1960s and 1965 Voting Rights Act
- Social change and generational change are interrelated
o Many change tastes and habits in a single direction simultaneously (intra-cohort, e.g. SUVs)
o ORa slower, more subtle change that appears even if no individual ever changes (inter-cohort)
- Most social change is both individual and generational
- Decline in voter turnout in America is virtually all generational
- Voting is most common form of political activity
- Voters are more likely to
o Be interested in politics
o Give to charity
o Volunteer
o Serve on juries
o Attend community school board meetings
B. Political Knowledge
- Generally fewer Americans follow public affairs now than did a quarter century ago
- Older generation interested in public affairs/ younger generation relatively uninterested
- Daily newspaper readership dropped from 2/3 in 1965 to 1/3 in 1990
C. Voting in America
- Voting down by , interest in public affairs down by 1/5 (over last 3 decades)
- Party organizations as strong as ever at both state and local levels
- Party nances skyrocketed
o More staff, more polling, more advertising, better candidate recruitment and training, more party outreach
- Attending a campaign meeting or volunteering to work for a political party much rarer over the past 30 years
- More and more party activity involves skilled mass marketing
- Financial capital the wherewithal for mass marketing has replaced
- Social capital grassroots citizen networks
- Money replaces time
D. Participation
- The frequency of virtually every form of community involvement measured in the Roper polls declined signicantly, from the most
common petition signing to the least common running for ofce (41).
o Including: writing Congress, writing an article or letter to the editor, making a speech
- Over last two decades, number of ofce seekers shrank by 15% (a quarter million candidates were lost annually to choose from)
- American public utterly uninvolved rose by 1/3 from 1970-1990
- The more activities depend on the actions of others, the greater the drop-off in participation
o Activities that involve serve, work, attend have diminished
o Most common verb is write
- Cooperative forms of behavior (i.e. sitting on a committee declined more rapidly than Expressive forms of behavior (i.e. writing let-
ters)
- In absolute terms, declines are the greatest among the better educated
- Americans score as well as grandparents on civic tests but have had an average of four more years of formal schooling
- 1990: 3 in 4 Americans didnt trust the government most of the time
Chapter 3: Civic Participation
A. Group Membership
- Ofcial membership in formal organizations is only one part of social capital
- Three categories of American voluntary associations
o Community based
o Church based
o Work based
- More groups does not mean more members
o Barely half of groups in 1988 Encyclopedia of Associations had individual members
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one 3
- New organizations in Washington are professionally staffed and not member-centered
o May be mailing list organizations
o Members are moving a pen, not making a meeting
- A social-capital-creating formal organization includes local chapters where members can actually meet one another
- Group involvement in government has increased while citizen involvement in government has decreased
B. Membership Trends
- Front-end prospecting providing a free gift to nonmembers and then asking for a donation
- Back-end prospecting sending gifts after donations have been received
- During 20th century, increased numbers of Americans were involved in chapter-based associations
- Traumatic impact of Great Depression on American communities (dip in civic involvement)
- Membership rates plateau in 1957, peak in early 1960s and continue to decline after 1969
o PTA (Parent Teacher Association) percentage doubled between 1945 and 1960
- Many disafliate from national PTA during 1970s to join competing organizations or to be independent
C. Formal Membership vs. Actual Involvement
- Card-carrying membership does not necessarily equal an active and involved membership
- According to the General Social Survey (GSS), formal membership rates have not changed much, if rising education levels are
ignored
- 1973-1994: Individuals who took any leadership role in any local organization was cut by more than 50%
- If the current rate of decline were to continue, clubs would become extinct in America within less than twenty years (62).
- According to organizational records, survey reports, time diaries, or consumer expenditures active involvement in face-to-face organi-
zations has fell dramatically.
Chapter 4: Religious Participation
A. Churches and Religious Organizations
- Nearly of all associational memberships are church related, of all personal philanthropy is religiously based, and of all volun-
teering is within a religious context
- Churches help to develop civic skills, civic norms, community interests, and civic movement (66)
- Church membership strongly related to: voting, jury service, talking to neighbors, community projects, giving to charity
o 75-80% church members give to charity / 55-60% nonmembers
o 50-60% church members volunteer / 30-35% nonmember
B. Americans Religious Commitment
- Essentially all believe in God, believe in immortality
- According to ve independent surveys, 40-45% attended religious services in any given week (1940-1999)
- Involvement in social life of church (i.e. Sunday schools, Bible study groups, church socials) has fallen at least as fast as church
membership and attendance (71)
- Over last 30-40 years, church membership has declined by 10% and actual attendance and involvement has declined by 25-50%
- Declines in religious participation are due largely to generational differences
- Baby boomers are less involved in religion than middle-aged people a generation ago
C. Trends in Religious Participation
- A survey administered to college freshman for the past 30 years
o 1968 9% never attended church services
o Late 1990s 18%
- It should be noted that: The population that has been entirely disconnected from organized religion has increased, [while] the frac-
tion that is intensely involved has been relatively stable (75).
- The changes have varied dramatically among different denominations.
o Protestant and Jewish congregations have lost members
o Catholics and other religions have gained
o Mainline Protestant congregations are dwindling, aging, and less involved in religious activities (76)
o Blacks continue to be more religiously observant than whites.
- Evangelicals: more likely to be involved in their own religious community but less likely to be involved in the broader community
o Evangelicals social capital is likewise vested in the home rather than the wider community
D. Summary
- Religion today is a central front of American community life and health (79).
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one 4
- Broad changes in religious participation mirror trends in secular life.
- More dynamic forms of faith continue to emerge but the community-building efforts of these new religious have been directed
inward rather than outward.
Chapter 5: Connections in the Workplace
A. Work-Related Organizations
- Among most common forms of civic connectedness in America (80)
- Union membership peaked in mid 1950s, but has decreased from 32.5% to 14.1%
- The problem may not be about the idea of union but more about the idea of membership
B. Professional Associations
- % of Americans who belong has doubled in last 40 years
- Relevant question is not, for example, How big is the American Medical Association? but How big is the AMA compared to the
number of physicians in America?
- Since 1990, associations have seen declining membership rates (i.e. the AMA, the ANA, the ABA)
C. Social Capital in Formal Organizations
- A recent shift from locational communities to vocational communities (85)
- Americans in the labor force 67% in 1997 / 59% in 1950
- The modern workplace encourages regular collaborative contact among peers (87) ideal for the creation of social capital
- There is no evidence that socializing in the workplace has actually increased
- Co-workers account for less than 10% of our friends.
- Downsizing and layoffs have directly impacted the social environment at the workplace.
- According to management scholar Peter Cappelli, The old employment system of secure, lifetime jobs with predictable advance-
ment and stable pay is dead.(88)
- Most common reaction to business restructuring is to focus more on ones own job.
- Performance-based pay and job security increases the degree of competition among co-workers
- A growing proportion of Americans have contingent jobs (i.e. part-time employees, consultants, on-call workers).
- All changes listed above limit social ties at the workplace.
- Social connections with co-workers continue to be a strong indicator of ones job satisfaction.
Chapter 6: Informal Social Connections
A. Informal Connections: Machers & Schmoozers
- Informal connections include: getting together for drinks, playing poker, having friends over, meeting in a reading group, etc.)
- Machers: people who make things happen in the community, all around good citizens
o Follow current events, volunteer, work on community projects, read the newspaper, follow politics, etc.
o Tend to be homeowners, better educated, have higher incomes
o Disproportionately male but shifting as females enter the labor force
- Schmoozers: those who spend time in informal conversation and communion
o Give dinner parties, play cards, hold barbecues, send greeting cards, etc.
o Tend to be single people, renters, frequent movers
o More common in contemporary America
o Trends in Schmoozing are down among men and women, in all age categories, in all social classes, in all parts of the country, in
cities, suburbs, and towns, among married and single people (108)
B. Visiting with Friends
- On average, those who live in cities know a smaller fraction of their neighbors than those who live in the suburbs or rural areas.
- Average American is more engaged with people as friends than as citizens.
- Americans play cards more than twice as often as we go to the movies. (98)
- 1970s, Americans entertained friends at home 14-15 times/year
- 1990s, Americans entertained friends at home 8 times/year (a decline of 45%)
- Dining out has increased very little if at all over the last several decades (100)
- Denitely, our whole family usually eats dinner together went from 50% to 34% over the last 20 years.
- Between 1970 and 1998, the number of fast-food restaurants doubled.
- Americans would rather grab a bite and run than sit a while and chat (102)
- 1940, cards were Americans favorite form of recreation
- Between 1981 and 1999, American adults frequency of card playing went from 16 times/year to 8 times/year.
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one 5
- Card playing is a social activity so its extinction will speed up towards the end.
- Substitutes for card playing include: computer and video games, casino gambling (solitary in nature)
- Sending greeting cards declined by 15-20% over the last 20 years.
- 1 adult in 8 is involved in a neighborhood or homeowners association. (106)
- Neighborhood watch groups are more common in past 20 years and have an immediate impact in reducing crime. (107)
- Informal socializing (visiting with friends, hanging out at bars, etc.) fell from 65% in 1965 to 39% in 1995
C. Participation in Sports
- Fallen by 10-20% over last decade or two, particularly affecting team and group sports
- Declines sharpest among the young with rising activity among the older generation
- Youth sports have been declining or stagnant over the last several decades
- All tness activities combined (apart from walking) are much less common than the more prosaic activities of card playing or dinner
parties (110).
- 1980s-1990s, rise in health clubs but decline in jogging and exercise classes
- Bowling is the most popular competitive sport in America.
- League bowling has fallen dramatically in the last 10-15 years.
- 91 million Americans bowled at some point during 1996, more than 25 percent more than voted in the 1998 congressional elec-
tions (113)
- Americans are spending less time doing sports, but more time watching sports.
- 1986-1998, churchgoing fell by 10% but museumgoing was up by 10%
- Households with someone who plays an instrument went from 51% in 1978 to 38% in 1997.
- Bottom line: More time watching and less time doing.
Chapter 7: Altruism, Volunteering, and Philanthropy
A. Helping Others
- Social capital refers to doing with, not only doing for
- Americans are twice as likely to participate in philanthropy and volunteering as citizens from other countries.
- In 1989, 74% of Americans gave money (excluding religious and political contributions), 35% volunteered, and 23% donated
blood.
- Volunteering is among the strongest predictors of philanthropy, and vice versa. (118)
- Factors that predict philanthropy and volunteerism: wealth (well-to-do), education (highly educated), community size (more com-
mon in small towns than in big cities), age (follows an inverted U-shaped pattern), employment (increases likelihood)
- Most consistent predictor is involvement in community life
- Joiners are nearly ten times more generous with their time and money than nonjoiners. (120)
- Being asked to give is a strong motivation for volunteering and philanthropy.
B. Trends in Giving
- In the 1990s, Americans gave a smaller share of their personal income than any time since the 1940s. (123)
- of charitable giving is religious in nature
- Giving to the Protestant church, the Catholic church, and the United Way are all declining signicantly
C. Trends in Volunteering
- 1970s the average American volunteered 6 times/year
- 1990s the average American volunteered 8 times/year
- Increase in volunteering is concentrated among those 60 and older
- Volunteering that can be done by senior citizens is up, volunteering that needs to be done by a younger more able-bodied individual
(i.e. ghting res, building houses) is down.
- Volunteers are more interested in politics and less cynical about political leaders than nonvolunteers are (132).
- A new spirit of volunteerism seems to be developing and the future of volunteering appears promising.
Chapter 8: Reciprocity, Honesty, and Trust
A. Generalized Reciprocity
- All accepted moral codes are derived from the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
- Transaction costs the costs of the everyday business of life and the costs of commercial transactions (135)
- An important difference exists between honesty based on personal experience and honesty based on a general community norm
- Thick Trust condence in personal friends, nested in personal relations
- Thin Trust a tenuous bond (i.e. between you and an acquaintance from the coffee shop), becoming rarer in our society
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one 6
- Those involved in community life are both more trusting and more trustworthy.
B. Social Trust
- Have-nots are less trusting than haves
o Haves are treated with more honesty and respect
- Crime rates are 2-3 times higher in cities
- Most Americans believe we live in a less trustworthy society than our parents did.
- Voluntary returns of mail census forms declined by more than a quarter between 1960 and 1990. (142)
- Study of drivers behavior at stop signs at the same intersections
o 1979 37% made a full stop, 34% a rolling stop, 29% no stop
o 1996 97% made no stop at all
C. Crime and the Law
- Rule of law formal contracts, courts, litigation, adjudication, and enforcement by the state (145)
- Until 1970, employment of guards, police, and lawyers grew relatively little as a fraction of the U.S. workforce
- After 1970 the legal profession grew three times faster than professions as a whole.
- Since 1970, informal understandings no longer seem adequate and most want to get it in writing.
- Americans rely increasingly on formal institutions and on the law to accomplish what was formerly accomplished through social
capital. (147)
Chapter 9: Against the Tide? Small Groups, Social Movements, and the Net
A. Small Groups
- 40% of Americans claim to be involved in a small group that meets regularly
o 2 in 5 helped fellow group members who were sick
o 3 in 5 extended to help someone outside of the group
o 4 in 5 said the group made them feel like you werent alone
- Reading circles have been very popular especially with women and encourage self-expression and consciousness-raising
- Self-help and support groups have grown in recent years (i.e. Alcoholics Anonymous, Co-Dependents Anonymous, groups for vic-
tims of muscular dystrophy, single parenting, Weight Watchers)
o Provide emotional support and interpersonal ties
o May substitute for ties that have been weakened in our fragmented society (151)
o Participation in these groups is 2-4 times higher among divorced and single people
o Bring private problems into the public realm
B. Social Movements
- Sixties were a time of great social change with effects spreading from boycotts with blacks and buses in Alabama to abortion advo-
cates (152)
- Social capital is essential for social movements
- Social movements create social capital by fostering new identities and extending social networks (153)
- Pro-Life organizations have a preexisting social network and draws upon church-based grassroots organizations
- National Right to Life Committee had 13 million members and 7,000 local chapters in 1993
- Pro-Choice movement lacks a preexisting social network and must rely on direct mail, telemarketing, and media campaigns
- Environmental movement blossomed in the 1960s including the Sierra Club and the National Audubon Society, rst Earth Day was
1970
o Membership in environmental organizations doubled to 2 million in 1980 and tripled to 6.5 million in 1990
o Environmental groups use direct mail to solicit members and retain current members
- Direct mail educates the public
o Direct-mail recruits drop out more readily, participate in fewer activities, feel less attachment to group (158)
- Average environmental organization requests money from members 9 times/year
- Survey of ve top environmental organizations found that members:
o Averaged less than 3 years afliation
o More than half belonged to 4 or more similar groups
o 8% described themselves as active
- Environmentalists:
o 60% recycle, 50% gave money to an environmental group in the past ve years, 30% signed a petition about an environmental
issue, 10% are members of a proenvironmental group, 3% participated in an environmental protest or demonstration
- Religious activists:
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one 1
o 60-70% attended church more than once a week (compared to less than 5% for other Americans)
- 5 states account for more than half of all ballot initiatives nationwide: California, Oregon, North Dakota, Colorado, and Arizona
- Surveys indicate a very low degree of voter sophistication on referenda issues (164)
- A slight growth in nationwide rates of demonstration and protest over last 25 years
o Not an alternative to conventional politics but a complement
o Protesters are unusually active politically
C. The Net
- Telephone is a good comparison
o By 1998, 2/3 of all adults had called someone the previous day just to talk (166)
o Telephone executives thought that their primary customer was businessmen and discouraged socializing by telephone
o Telephone both gives and takes away socially speaking
o Used to maintain personal friendships now severed by space (168)
o Reinforces existing personal networks
o Facilitates schmoozing with old friends but has not engendered new friendships
- Internet craze
o Speed of diffusion greater than that of almost any other consumer technology in history (169)
o 1/3 of adult population had used the Internet by spring 1999
- Mourners can attend virtual funerals on the Web
- Cyberwedding held in June 1997
- Is virtual social capital a contradiction in terms?
- The Internet is not the cause of social problems as many existed before the Internet explosion
- Internet is a powerful tool for transmitting information among physically distant people.
o Does this ow of information foster social capital or genuine community?
D. Computer-mediated communication
- Networks organized by shared interests rather than shared space
- Virtual communities are more egalitarian
- Women less likely to be interrupted in cyberspace discussions
- Benets: high speed, low cost, broad scope of mobilization
- Digital divide the social inequality of access to cyberspace (174)
o Less connected groups include the rural poor, rural and inner-city racial minorities, young, female-headed households
- Challenges
o Reinforcing the culturally dominant social networks rather than fostering community connectedness
o Computer-mediated communication transmits much less nonverbal information than face-to-face communication (175)
- This limits interpersonal collaboration and trust
o Harder to reach consensus and most feel less solidarity with one another
o Cheating and reneging are more common
o Building trust and goodwill not easy in cyberspace
o If entry and exit are too easy, commitment, trustworthiness, and reciprocity will not develop. (177)
o Cyberbalkanization connes our communication to people who share precisely our interests
o Will the Internet become more like the telephone or the television? (a means of active social communication or passive, private
entertainment) (179)
- Survey of Internet in 1999
o 42% watch TV less
o 19% read fewer magazines
o 16% read fewer newspapers
- Computer-mediated communication will complement but not replace face-to-face communication
E. Concluding thoughts
- Exceptions to trends toward civic disengagement
o Rise in youth volunteering
o Growth of telecommunication and the Internet
o Growth of grassroots activity among evangelical conservatives
o Increase in self-help support groups (180)
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one 8
III. WHY?
Chapter 10: Introduction
A. Changes in Civic Engagement
- First 2/3 of century, Americans took a more active role in social and political life of their communities (183)
- Compared with our recent past, we are less connected
B. Solving the Mystery of Social Participation
- Look to see if declines in civic engagement follow social characteristics
- Effects started by social change often spread well beyond initial point
- Steady declines in all sectors of American society in roughly equal measure
- Education most important predictor or social participation
o A proxy for privilege (social class and economic advantage)
o Educated people are more engaged with community because of their skills, resources, and inclinations
o 1960 8% of Americans had a college degree
o 1998 24% of Americans had a college degree
o Education boosts civic engagement, education levels have risen massively
- So why hasnt civic engagement increased?
o Busyness
o Women into the paid labor force
o Suburbanization
o Disruption of marriage and family ties
o Growth of welfare state
o The sixties: Vietnam, Watergate
Chapter 11: Pressures of Time and Money
A. Pervasive Busyness
- I dont have enough time reason most Americans give for failure to participate
- Not clear whether Americans work harder than their parents did
- Men over 55 have more leisure time today, mainly because of early retirement
- Harris polls found that the median time Americans have available to relax, participate in sports, go to the movies, attend concerts,
get together with friends, etc. has remained steady at 19-20 hours/week
o Free time may come in forms not easily convertible to civic engagement (190)
o Less educated Americans gain free time but college-educated have lost it
o Dual-career families are more common and spending more time at work than they used to
o Coordinating schedules has become more burdensome
- Employed people are more active civically and socially than those outside of labor force.
- Best way to get something done is to give it to a busy person.
- Falloff in civic involvement is mirrored among full-time workers, part-time workers, and those who do not work
B. Economic Pressures
- Financial anxieties rose over last 25 years which has a depressing effect on social involvement
o Associated with less frequent moviegoing, less card playing, less frequent attendance at church, less interest in politics
- Economy has gone up and down and up and down but social capital has only gone down
- Declines in engagement are as great among the afuent as among the poor
C. Movement of Women
- A theory that womens liberation has caused our civic crisis (not likely)
- Women who work outside the home went from less than 1 in 3 in 1950s to 2 in 3 in the 1990s
- A double edged sword
o A job outside the home increases opportunity for making new connections but decreases time available for exploring those op-
portunities (194)
- Those active in the workforce are more involved in their communities
- Virtually all the increase in full-time employment of American women over the last twenty years is attributable to nancial pres-
sures, not personal fulllment. (197)
- Women working full-time go fewer club meetings than other women.
- Women invest more time in associational life than the average man. (200)
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one 9
- Greatest involvement is found in part-time workers, especially those who work by choice.
- Women are not to blame for our civic disengagement.
- Professional and service organizations have beneted by full-time employment increases.
- Neither womens movement into the workforce or nancial distress is the main reason for the nationwide decline in civic engage-
ment
Chapter 12: Mobility and Sprawl
A. Frequent Movers
- One in ve Americans move each year
- Those who have recently moved to a new community are less likely to vote, less likely to have supportive networks of friends or
neighbors, and less likely to belong to civic organizations (204)
- Mobility is not to blame for civic disengagement as mobility has not increased over the last fty years
- Largest metropolitan areas have fewer group memberships, fewer club meetings, attend church less, and are less likely to attend
public meetings (205)
- Civic engagement is not correlated with whether one would prefer living in a big city, a suburb, or a small town (206).
- 1950s half of Americans lived in a metropolitan area, 1990s 4 in 5 lived in metropolitan area
- Suburbanization resulted in greater separation of workplace and residence and greater segregation by race and class (208)
- The greater the social homogeneity of a community, the lower the level of political involvement. (210)
- Jobs and shops have also moved from the cities to the suburbs
- Shopping in the suburbs at impersonal malls does not involve interaction with people that are embedded in the same social network.
- From 1969 to 1995, the average trip to work increased by 26% and the average shopping trip increased by 29%
- According to the Department of Transportations Personal Transportation Survey, American adults average 72 minutes behind the
wheel each day.
- Driving alone has become the most common way to travel for Americans.
- Each additional ten minutes in daily commuting time cuts involvement in community affairs by 10 percent (213)
- Metropolitan sprawl has contributed to civic disengagement over the last 30-40 years
o Sprawl takes time. More time in the car alone means less time with family, friends, at meetings or working on community proj-
ects.
o Sprawl and social segregation go hand-in-hand.
o Sprawl disrupts community boundedness. Participation decreases in the community as members commute to work or shop.
Chapter 13: Technology and Mass Media
A. Changes in Technology
- News and entertainment are increasingly individualized
o 1900 people who wanted to enjoy music sat with other people at xed times and listened to xed programs
o 2000 one can use a Walkman CD and listen to anything he or she wants at any time or place
- Electronic technology allows us to consume entertainment in private or utterly alone
- T.S. Eliot observed of television that, It is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at
the same time, and yet remain lonesome. (217)
B. Media and Civic Engagement
- Newspaper readers are older, more educated, and more involved in their communities than average American
- Newspaper readership has diminished in recent decades
- TV news and the newspaper are complements, not substitutes (219)
- TV news viewing is positively associated with civic involvement (220)
- 60% of adults viewed the nightly network news in 1993 compared to 38% in 1998
C. Entertainment
- 1950 10% of American homes had televisions, 1959 90% of Americans had televisions
- Average American watches about 4 hours of television/day
- Sixth-graders with a TV set in their bedroom: 6% in 1970 to 77% in 1999
- In 1982, a survey reports that 8 out of 10 most popular leisure activities were based at home.
- According to social critic James Howard Kuntsler, The outside world has become an abstraction ltered through television, just as
the weather is an abstraction ltered through air conditioning. (224)
- One study suggests that of all Americans usually watch TV by themselves.
- Selective viewers those who turn on the television only to see a specic program and turn it off when theyre not watching
- Habitual viewers those who turn the TV on without regard to whats on and leave it on in the background
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one !0
- Americans born before 1933 43% were selective viewers in 1993
- Americans born after 1963 23% were selective viewers in 1993
- Younger generations are more likely to engage in channel surng or switching from program to program
- During every period of the day at least one-quarter of all adults report some TV viewing (227).
- of all Americans watch TV while eating dinner
D. Changes Leading to Civic Disengagement
- Americans spend almost an hour more per day watching TV in 1995 than in 1965
- Heavy viewers outnumber light viewers by nearly 2 to 1.
- 7% watch TV primarily for information, 41% watch TV primarily for entertainment
- Dependence on television is the single most consistent predictor that the author found for civic disengagement.
- TV minimalists denitely disagree that television is my primary form of entertainment
- TV maximalists denitely agree that television is my primary form of entertainment
E. Correlation, Yes. Causation, ??
- Television itself may not be the cause of disengagement.
- The problems with civic disengagement began more than a decade before television became widely available.
- Heavy television watching probably increases aggressiveness and probably reduces school achievement. (237)
- Television may reduce civic engagement
o Television competes for scarce time.
o Television has psychological effects that inhibit social participation.
o Specic programmatic content on television undermines civic motivation. (237)
F. Lethargy and Passivity
- Television watching is a relaxing, low-concentration activity, which makes viewers passive and less alert.
- According to time researchers Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi, television is surely habit-forming and may be mildly addictive. (240)
- The DDB Needham Life Style survey determined that people who complain of frequent headaches, stomachaches, and insomnia
also have a high dependence on television as entertainment.
G. Programmatic Content
- Top of the pro-civic hierarchy are news programs and educational television
- Pro-social programming may have positive effects, such as encouraging altruism
- Most programs on television are empirically linked to civic disengagement.
- It is likely that television encourages materialist values.
Chapter 14: From Generation to Generation
A. Aging
- Age is second to education as a predictor of civic engagement
- Middle-aged and older people are more active, more philanthropic, and work more on community projects than younger people
- Life cycle effects individuals change, society as a whole does not
- Generational effects society changes, individuals do not
- Life cycle patterns caused by various factors
o Demands of family
o Slackening of energy (going from adolescence to old age)
o Shape of careers (going into and leaving the labor force) (249)
- Baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are not as civically active as the generation that came before them
- Fall off in newspaper readership from 1970s to 1990s heavily concentrated in younger generations.
- The more recent the cohort, the more dramatic its disengagement from community life (251).
- Key question, not how old are people now, but when they were young.
- Each generation that has reached adulthood since 1950s has been less engaged in community affairs than its immediate predeces-
sor (254).
- The most civic generation was those born from 1910-1940 although these individuals received substantially less formal education.
- There must be something signicant about being raised after World War II that makes people less likely to connect with the com-
munity.
- Effects of generational disengagement have been delayed
o A postwar boom in college enrollment increased civic mindedness
o It takes a certain generation several decades to become numerically dominant in the adult population (255)
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one !!
- In the last 25 years, boomers and Xers tripled from one out of every four adults to three out of four. This explains the collapse
of civic engagement.
- The older generation is holding up more than its share of the civic burden (256).
B. Baby Boomers and Gen Xers
- Boomers are 1/3 of the adult population and are the best educated generation in American history.
- Boomers are the rst generation to be exposed to TV throughout their lives (257)
- Boomers have more libertarian attitudes and have less respect for authority, religion, and patriotism than their elders.
- The X Generation (those born between 1965 and 1980) emphasizes the personal and the private over the public and collective.
- Political discussions among high school students were half as common in the late 1990s when compared to the late 1960s.
- Only 54% of Generation Xers feel guilty when they dont vote compared to 70% for older generations. (261)
- A trend exists toward increasing depression and suicide that is generationally based.
- From 1950 to 1995, the suicide rate for those age 15-19 quadrupled and tripled for those age 20-24.
- Surveys on malaise or headaches, indigestion, and sleeplessness indicate that middle-aged and younger people are becoming more
and more aficted.
- Social isolation may be to blame for the trend toward suicide, depression, and malaise among younger generations.
- Compared with people in the 1950s, youth in the 1990s report fewer, weaker, and more uid friendships (264).
- On a positive note, young people have been signicantly more active in volunteering and community service in the past ten years.
C. Society Wide vs. Generational
- Society wide forces have been especially detrimental to private socializing (266).
- Generational forces have had more gradual effects on public engagement, such as religious observance, trust, voting, following the
news, and volunteering (266).
- Generational change can account for about half of the decline in civic engagement.
D. A Change after WWII
- The patriotism and national unity felt around 1945 increased civic-mindedness.
o External conict tends to increase internal cohesion (267)
o A signicant burst in volunteering and service occurred during and after WWII.
- 16 million people who served in the armed forces, 6 million volunteers, and their immediate families made up of the U.S. popula-
tion.
- From 1942-1943, the civilian defense corps increased from 1.2 million to 12 million Americans.
- Civic and economic equality were accentuated by the war.
- Shortages and rationing during the war also led to hoarding and black marketeering. (271)
- Racial tensions were heightened by the war in some areas including the Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps in
California.
- 1975 people asked to identify elements of the good life
o 38% a lot of money
o 38% a job that contributes to the welfare of society
- 1996 people asked to identify elements of the good life
o 63% a lot of money
o 32% a job that contributes to the welfare of society
- Clear differences in state of mind depending on which generation an individual was born.
- Younger generations feel less connection to their communities.
Chapter 15: What Killed Civic Engagement? Summing Up
A. The Traditional Family
- Structure of American family changed over the last several decades
- Breakdown of traditional family unit (mom, dad, and kids)
- Currently married fell from 74% in 1974 to 56% in 1998
- Adults married and have kids at home, 26% in 1997
- Marriage and children change kinds of social networks one belongs to
- More likely to be involved in religious activities and school and youth groups if married with children
- Marriage and children negatively correlated with membership in sports, political, and cultural groups
- Married people more likely to give/attend dinner parties, entertain at home, take an active role in community organizations
- Divorce negatively related to involvement in religious organizations
- The decline of the traditional family may have contributed to the decline of traditional religion, but the reverse is equally possible (279).
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one !2
- Decline in traditional family cannot explain the major declines in social capital.
B. Race
- Racial differences in associational membership not large
- Decline in social capital affected all races
- Sharpest drop in civic activity (1970-1990) was among college-educated African Americans
- If racial prejudice were responsible for Americas civic disengagement, then disengagement ought to be especially pronounced
among the most bigoted individuals and generations. But it is not (280).
C. Government
- Some government policies destroyed social capital
- Differences in social capital uncorrelated with measures of welfare spending or government size
- Recent trends create doubt that the welfare state is responsible for the declines in social capital
D. Big business, Capitalism, the Market
- Market capitalism has been basically constant over the years
- Increasing globalization, replacement of local businesses with multinational empires, results in a more impersonal and less commu-
nity-minded state
E. Summing up: Contributed to Decline in Civic Disengagement
- Pressures of time and money 10%
- Suburbanization, commuting, sprawl 10%
- Effect of electronic entertainment (especially television) 25% overlaps with generational change
- Long civic generation replaced by less involved children and grandchildren (generational change) 50%
IV. SO WHAT?
Chapter: Introduction
A. The Need for Social Capital
- Social capital diminished steadily over the past two generations
- Civic connections improve quality of life and have positive effects
- Social capital allows citizens to resolve collective problems more easily (288).
o People better off if they cooperate.
- Social capital greases the wheels that allow communities to advance smoothly (288).
- Those with trusting connections to others acquire character traits that are good for society.
- Many get jobs through personal connections
o Often more important than talent and training
- Those who have a life full of social capital cope better with traumas and ght illness more effectively (289).
B. Examining Social Capital Across the U.S.
- Social capital was rated across all states.
- 14 indicators of formal and informal community networks and social trust were used and combined into a Social Capital Index
(291)
o Social trust: 17% in Mississippi, 67% in North Dakota
o Voter turnout in recent presidential elections: 42% in North Carolina, 69% in Minnesota
o Average number of club meetings attended each year: 4 in Nevada, 11 in North and South Dakota
- High social capital centered over the headwaters of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and extends east and west along the Canada
border (292)
- Low social capital centered over the Mississippi Delta and extends outward in rising concentric circles through the former Confed-
eracy (292)
- National average represented in California and the mid-Atlantic states
- The higher the fraction of the population that is from Scandinavia, the higher the degree of social capital in that state
- The more deeply rooted slavery was in a given state, the less civic the state is today.
Chapter 17: Education and Childrens Welfare
A. Child Development
- Social capital keeps bad things from happening to good kids (296).
- Children ourish in states that score high on the Social Capital Index
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one !3
o North Dakota, Vermont, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa
- Using statistical tools, factors may be held constant so that researchers can establish links between social capital and child well-being.
- Social capital important in preventing low-birth-weigh babies, reducing the drop out rate, keeping kids off of the streets, and reduc-
ing the number of babies born out of wedlock.
- Child abuse rates higher where neighborhood cohesion is lower
B. Social Capital and School Performance
- States scoring high on Social Capital Index have better educational outcomes than other states
- The level of informal social capital in the state is a stronger predictor of student achievement than is the level of formal institution-
alized social capital (300).
- Civic engagement high, teachers report lower levels of misbehavior in schools and higher levels of parental involvement
- Students may perform better in states with high social capital because they watch less TV
- Learning is not only inuenced by what happens at school, but also what goes on at home, social networks, and trust in the wider
community
- Parents involved children do better in school schools they attend are better
- Smaller schools often outperform larger schools
o More opportunities for involvement in extracurricular activities, clubs, etc.
- Catholic schools do better than public because, Catholic schools benet from a network of social relations, characterized by trust,
that constitute a form of social capital (304).
- Social capital within the family affects child development
Chapter 18: Safe and Productive Neighborhoods
A. Crime in Neighborhoods
- Social disorganization is the prime contributor to neighborhood crime, vandalism, etc.
- According to Jane Jacobs, a scholar of urban life, social capital is what most differentiated safe and organized cities from unsafe and
disorganized ones (308).
- The higher the levels of social capital, (if all other factors are equal) the lower the levels of crime.
- Proportionately fewer murders in states with high levels of social capital
o Lethal violence much more common in the South than in the rest of the country
- States with low levels of social capital are more likely to agree with the statement, Id do better than average in a st ght.
- Neighborhood characteristics greatly inuence individuals behavior
- Most Americans are less involved in their neighborhoods than their parents were.
- Some neighborhoods have less crime than others
o Mutual trust and altruism
o Intervene when children are misbehaving
- Strong family social capital may spill over into the surrounding neighborhood.
- Gangs established in an attempt to create social capital where it is lacking
- High levels of trust exist within many inner-city neighborhoods or ghettos
- However, inner cities have less social capital than they once did
- Unfortunately, neighborhood crime is more likely to succeed in middle-class areas where it is not needed.
- Poor people have little economic capital and have difculty acquiring human capital (education). This makes social capital extremely
important to their welfare. (318)
Chapter 19: Economic Prosperity
A. Social Connections
- Those who are better educated or in economically stable families are more likely to have valuable social ties, which help them to suc-
ceed.
o These ties may help an individual get a job, a bonus, a promotion, or other benets. (318)
- Strong ties closest friends or family members (will hear of the same opportunities)
- Weak ties more distant acquaintances (lead to more unexpected and possibly lucrative opportunities)
- Unemployed people use social networks and institutions in seeking employment and look to friends and relatives for possible job
opportunities
- Rotating credit associations a group, often ethnically based, in which members make regular contributions to common fund, avail-
able to each contributor in rotation (320)
- A business executives social ties are at least as important as educational qualications and experience.
- One study found that each employed person in ones social network increase ones annual income by $1,400.
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one !4
- Social capital can help individuals, neighborhoods, and nations to create wealth.
- Neighborhoods with high social capital tend to have housing values that remain relatively high.
Chapter 20: Health and Happiness
A. Social Connectedness and Health
- More integrated in community, less likely to suffer from colds, cancer, heart attacks, strokes, depression, and premature death
- According to sociologist James House, the positive contributions to health made by social integration and social support rival in
strength the detrimental contributions of well-established biomedical risk factors like cigarette smoking, obesity, elevated blood pres-
sure, and physical inactivity (327).
- Social cohesion matters for health
o Social networks provide assistance in the form of money, care, and transportation which reduce stress
o Socially isolated people more likely to smoke, drink, overeat
o Strong communities more likely to organize politically for positive change
- People who are socially disconnected are between two and ve times more likely to die from all causes, compared with matched
individuals who have close ties with family, friends, and the community (327).
- Moving to a state high in social capital is as good as quitting smoking for improving ones health.
- The elderly that are involved in clubs, volunteering, or local politics are in better health than those who are not involved.
- If one belongs to no groups and joins one, he or she cuts his or her risk of dying over the next year in half. (331)
- A general decline in social participation has been observed over the past 25 years
- Those with close friends, neighbors and co-workers are less likely to be sad, lonely, have low self-esteem, or problems eating and
sleeping.
B. Staying Happy
- Getting married is the happiness equivalent of quadrupling your annual income (333).
- According to survey data, people over 55 are happier than people their age were a generation ago.
Chapter 21: Democracy
A. Self-Government?
- Philosopher John Dewey said, Democracy must begin at home, and its home is the neighborly community (337).
- Founding Fathers were against political parties and local political committees, believing that they would threaten political stability
- Voluntary associations and social networks have effects on democracy
o Give individuals an opportunity to express their interests and concerns with respect to the government
o When individuals join together, their single voice is joined by others and is more likely to be heard
o Associations help members to learn cooperation and public-spiritedness (338)
o Members learn how to run meetings, speak in public, write letters, organize projects, and debate public issues with civility
(339).
- High school seniors who are involved with voluntary associations are more likely to vote, participate in political campaigns after
graduating
- Some voluntary associations are not necessarily good for democracy
o i.e., the KKK
Associational ties benet those who are already ahead in society: those with education, money, status and ties to members of their com-
munity* Some worry that participation is linked to extremism
- Organizations are typically homogeneous and may simply reinforce their members ideas and isolate them from new information.
- Political polarization may increase cynicism about governments ability to solve problems and decrease condence that civic engage-
ment makes any difference (341).
- Some who join voluntary associations will learn cooperation and compassion, while others will become more narcissistic.
- Citizenship is not a spectator sport (341).
- If less people participate in politics, those that are left are likely to be more extreme. (the moderates tend to drop out rst)
- Those with more extreme views are more involved in the political process even though most Americans describe themselves as mod-
erate or middle of the road.
- Most political discussions are informal (at the water cooler or the dinner table).
- Instead of face-to-face active political participation, many join agencies to represent their interests, which may be effective.
- However, these agencies are no substitute for more personal forms of political involvement. (344)
B. Italian Government
- Italians set up twenty regional governments in diverse settings (social, economical, and political).
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one !5
- Some new governments failed miserably while others were very successful.
- In regions with many active community organizations, the governments are successful.
- Where engagement and involvement are not as prevalent, the governments are less effective.
C. Civic Traditions
- A 1950s study identied three cultures: traditionalistic in the South, individualistic in the Mid-Atlantic and western states,
moralistic in the Northeast, upper Midwest, and Pacic Northwest (346)
- Tax compliance is higher in states with high levels of social capital
- Those that believe that others are dishonest or do not trust the government are themselves more likely to cheat on their taxes.
- Communities high in social capital contribute signicantly more funds to public broadcasting.
Chapter 22: The Dark Side of Social Capital
A. Thoughts on Social Capital
- Is social capital at war with liberty and tolerance? (351)
- Tolerance has increased in recent decades
o 1956 50% of white Americans thought that blacks and whites should go to separate schools
o 1995 only 4% had the same feelings
o 1973 45% of Americans thought that library books that advocated homosexuality should be banned
o 1999 26% had the same sentiments
- Although becoming more tolerant, Americans were also becoming more disconnected from one another and their communities.
- More individual freedoms are now present while organizational solidarity has declined.
- Community and liberty may be compatible.
o The more engaged a person is, the more tolerant he or she is apt to be (more open to gender equality, racial integration, rights of
controversial individuals, etc.)
- Individuals from high social capital states place greater importance on civil liberties, racial and gender equality than those from low-
social-capital states.
- Increasing tolerance is due to the replacement of the less tolerant generation born in the rst half of the twentieth century, with the
more tolerant boomers and Xers (born after 1945).
- The most engaged and most tolerant are those born from 1940-1945.
B. Is Social Capital at War with Equality? (358)
- Social capital may bond us to others like us.
- Community and equality are not necessarily incompatible.
- Two trends developed in America 1965-1970
o Less economically just
o Less connected socially and politically
- Social capital may foster equality
- Equality may foster civic engagement and social capital.
- Social connectedness and equality may be fostered by external forces.
V. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Chapter 23: Lessons of History: The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era
A. Drastic Changes and Developments
- One hundred years ago, America went through a period of great technological, economic, and social change.
- 1870-1900 American changed from a rural, traditional society into a modern, industrialized, urban nation. (368)
- Technological changes were rampant, including the spread of electricity across the nation.
- Railroad and telegraph changed the once isolated communities into integrated national economic unit[s] (369).
- Modern corporations led to the demise of many occupations while creating new ones, such as administrators or industrial workers.
- Standard of living dramatically improved at close of Civil War
- Gap between rich and poor widened
- Severe recessions followed by economic progressions
- 1893-1897 worst economic period in American history
- Between Civil War and WWI, rapid population growth and urbanization
- 1870-1900 12 million immigrants to U.S., 1900-1914 another 13 million immigrants
- Better paying work led to new culture of leisure (movie theaters, record industry)
- Industrial Revolution progressed, womens role in public life changed
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one !6
o Demanded right to vote, got advanced education, worked and socialized alongside men
- Cities were industrial wastelands full of vice, poverty, rampant disease; full of dank, crowded slums (373)
- Farmers at mercy of massive corporations with little protection against exploitation, expensive credit, and price deation (374)
- Working classes made up of foreign, Catholic, or black people
- Rampant discrimination worsened by late 1800s with passage of separate but equal Jim Crow laws (poll tax, literacy tests, grandfa-
ther clause)
- Many civic organizations excluded members based on race or social status.
- Mail order business increased and many feared small towns would suffer greatly.
- Rise of professional staff meant a decline in civic involvement (hire someone to ght your ght for you)
- Dominant belief in social Darwinism (survival of the ttest) began to change
- Muckraking journalists exposed the hard realities that many faced in America
- People looked out for themselves rst, neighbors later, if at all.
B. Progressive Era
- Technological changes parallel those of today.
- Older forms of social connection were destroyed by technological, economic, and social change (382)
- Challenge is to reform institutions and adapt behaviors to ensure that the basic values and traditions will be preserved.
- Many clubs and organizations were founded at the end of the 19th century.
- An explosion of civic involvement from 1870-1920 unmatched in American history.
- Groups founded from 1890-1920 were broad-based professional, civic, or service organizations, like the Boy Scouts, the National
Association of Grocers, the Red Cross, or the Lions Club (388).
- Most organizations founded during this time were segregated by sex.
- Fraternal groups provided social solidarity and ritual as well as material benets.
o Made up of both middle and working-class members.
- 1890 General Federation of Womens Clubs formed advocating child labor, womens employment, kindergartens, and womens
suffrage (390)
- Immigrants were very involved in associations of their own.
- Religion played a signicant role in the rise of civic engagement at this time especially in the black community.
- Organized labor increased importance in American life
- 1901-1910 youth organizations founded including the Boy and Girl Scouts, Campre Girls, the 4-H, Boys Clubs and Girls Clubs,
Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and the American Camping Association (393)
- Settlement houses established for young middle-class men and women to educate and uplift the immigrant poor.
- Kindergarten movement in early 1900s encouraged childhood creativity and was headed by womens groups.
- 1890s reading groups began to include social service and advocacy in their agenda (396)
- Periodic tent meetings [held] to draw citizens and political leaders into informal give-and-take on public issues (397)
- Progressives changed many public policies
o Presidential primary elections, direct election of senators, secret ballot
A. Debating the Progressive Era
- About social reform, control, or revolution?
- Racial segregation and social exclusion central to public agenda of the Progressive Era (400)
- Civic organizations founded 1880-1910 have lasted for over a century.
- Willingness to erris the price of success in social reform (401).
Chapter 24: Toward an Agenda for Social Capitalists
A. Moving Forward
- Bonds of our communities have weakened
- Social change must be guided
- New structures and policies must be created to encourage new civic engagement
- Challenges ahead are both individual and collective
B. Challenges in Six Spheres
- Youth and Schools: Let us nd ways to ensure that by 2010 the level of civic engagement among Americans then coming of age in
all parts of our society will match that of their grandparents when they were that same age, and that at the same time bridging social
capital will be substantially greater than it was in their grandparents era (404).
o Improve civic education
o Employ more community service programs
Oul||ne und Sludy Gu|de or 8ov||n A|one !1
o Design service learning programs to improve civic knowledge, increase social responsibility, teach cooperation
o Encourage participation in extracurricular activities
o Create smaller schools or schools within schools to allow greater opportunities for involvement
- The Workplace: Let us nd ways to ensure that by 2010 Americas workplace will be substantially more family-friendly and com-
munity-congenial, so that American workers will be enabled to replenish our stocks of social capital both within and outside the
workplace (406).
o Community or family-oriented workplaces benet the employer as well
o Reward companies or rms that enact positive change with respect to their employees family or the community
o Increase availability of part time work which allows enough time for more active civic engagement
o Provide opportunities for employees to connect socially with one another
- Urban and Metropolitan Design: Let us ensure that by 2010 Americans will spend less time traveling and more time connecting
with our neighbors than we do today, that we will live in more integrated and pedestrian-friendly areas, and that the design of our
communities and the availability of public space will encourage more casual socializing with friends and neighbors (408).
o Increase mixed-use zoning
o Create pedestrian-friendly street grids
o Have more space for public use
- Religion: Let us spur a new, pluralistic, socially responsible great awakening, so that by 2010 Americans will be more deeply
engaged than we are today in one or another spiritual community of meaning, while at the same time becoming more tolerant of the
faiths and practices of other Americans (409).
o Megachurches use contemporary entertainment and marketing, mixing religion and socializing
- Arts and Culture: Let us nd ways to ensure that by 2010 signicantly more Americans will participate in (not merely consume or
appreciate) cultural activities from group dancing to songfests to community theater to rap festivals. Let us discover new ways to use
the arts as a vehicle for convening diverse groups of fellow citizens (411).
- Politics and Government: Let us nd ways to ensure that by 2010 many more Americans will participate in the public life of our
communities running for ofce, attending public meetings, serving on committees, campaigning in elections, and even voting
(412).
o Campaign reform should increase social capital and decrease the importance of nancial capital