An Analysis: Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital by Robert Putnam

In his article "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital," Robert Putnam defines his idea of social capital and outlines problems arising from a decline of civic society in America. He describes social capital as the benefits that come from social organizations, such as networking, societal norms and a generalized trust, which lead to cooperation and progress. Putnam goes on to say that societies in which members are civically engaged have been far more successful in areas like education, unemployment, crime, drug abuse and healthcare. He explains that social networks play an important role in the performance of representative government. It is his belief that these social networks of civic engagement drastically affect things like voter turnout and newspaper readership, things that play an important role in the electoral process. Putnam makes a simple claim that "life is easier in a community blessed with a substantial stock of social capital" (3). He says that not only is life easier in these communities, but that these social networks are a prerequisite for socio-economic modernization.

He continues by describing how this social capital has declined over the past few decades in America. He relates that nearly 160 years ago, when Alexis de Tocqueville visited America, he was impressed by the widespread tendency for Americans to form associations of all types. He begins to explain this problem of declining social capital by describing voting trends in America. In the 1960's voter turnout was extremely high, but by the 1990's turnout had decreased by close to twenty-five percent. Further, the attendance of public meetings declined by a third over a period of twenty years. A decline in civic engagement has also been documented in turnouts at political rallies and speeches and even local committee meetings. It seems that as a result of this lack of participation, people have begun to distrust the government in America. In 1966 thirty percent of Americans were distrustful. Less than thirty years later, the number of those who are distrustful of the government rose to seventy-five percent.