Participation and Democracy: Dynamics, Causes ... - Jacobs University

in order to pursue goals in relation to others. Along similar lines, Nin (1999; 2001)
defines social capital as an individual investment in social relations with expected
returns, that is what a person anticipates as benefit or profit. However, irrespectively of
an individual or societal approach to the concept of social capital, it remains undisputed
that it is the interaction between people that constitutes the benefits of social capital (Nin
1999: 32).
A third – and probably most important – debate deals with Putnam’s observation of
decreasing membership rates and declining social capital. If one follows the appraisal of
voluntary associations and its civic consequences, then the future of democratic societies
as we know them must be seen in an alarming light. Consequently, Putnam’s thesis of
declining social capital and the decreased vibrancy of American civil society (Putnam
1995a: 65) has led to heated debates within the social science community (for an
overview see Stolle and Hooghe 2004).
As the main reason for the erosion of social capital Putnam blames the processes of
individualization. Those processes led to a significant decline in active membership
associations, such as PTAs, football teams or community groups. Instead of enjoying
community activities with others, people tend to spend their free time in individualized
leisure activities (“Bowling Alone”). As a result, social capital is eroding – which, in the
end, leads to a more general decline of political and social engagement. Among others,
Putnam reports about decreasing voting turnout, political interest and grass root
activities, so his diagnosis is not restricted to conventional forms of political
participation. Quite the contrary: By stating a decline in the willingness of American
citizens to sign petitions, declining social capital also seems to have an impact on
unconventional political participation (for a critique on the reliability of Putnam’s data,
measurement and interpretation see for example Ladd 1996, 1999, Paxton 1999; Stolle
and Hooghe 2004).
This observation has led to Putnam’s diagnosis that today’s democracies are facing a
general decline of political and social activities: “Ironically – just at the moment of
liberal democracy’s greatest triumph there is also unhappiness about the performance of
major social institutions, including the institutions of representative government, among
the established democracies (…). At least in the United States, there is reason to suspect
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