Civic Engagement and Civic Attitudes in Cross-National Perspective: Introduction to the Symposium
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00714.x |
| Date | 01 March 2008 |
| Published date | 01 March 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Civic Engagement and Civic Attitudes in
Cross-National Perspective:
Introduction to the Symposium
Dietlind Stolle Marc Morjé Howard
McGill University/
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin
Georgetown University
Although civic engagement as a field of study has a long tradition in political
science, it re-emerged in the 1990s as a result of real world events and academic
scholarship. Popular revolutions in Eastern Europe and elsewhere led to a
renewed interest in ‘people power’ across the world, including in the United
States.And political scientist Rober t Putnam’s study of civic community in Italy,
followed by his analysis of changing patterns of social capital in the United States,
helped to launch a new research agenda in the fields of comparative and American
politics. Indeed, over the last fifteen years since the publication of Making
Democracy Work, and over a decade since the article versions of what eventually
became Bowling Alone, numerous works have addressed the themes of civil society
and social capital, in a wide variety of theoretical and empirical contexts (see, for
example, Adler and Kwon, 2002; van Deth, 1997; Foley and Edwards, 1999;
Glaeser et al., 2002; Hooghe and Stolle,2003; Howard,2003; Lidström, 2006; Lin,
2001; Newton, 2006; Paxton, 2002; Portes, 1998; Woolcock, 1998).
Underpinning Putnam’s work is the concept of social capital, a notion that has
attracted widespread interest among all sorts of social scientists in the past decade,
as it claims to explain, or be associated with, a varied set of social, political and
economic phenomena. Social capital includes a variety of ing redients, including
civic attitudes such as trust, reciprocity and helpfulness, as well as civic engage-
ment and social interaction between citizens. Scholarly evidence suggests that
societies high on social capital and civic engagement have lower crime rates, more
democratic government, more efficient economies, more successful schools and
better public services (Coleman, 1988; Kawachi et al., 1997; Knack and Keefer,
1997; Putnam, 1993; however, see McLaren and Baird, 2006; Tarrow, 1996). The
problem is that societies rich on social capital and civic engagement are also
wealthier and often more democratic. Thus it is extremely difficult to know what
is cause and what is effect in this tightly interwoven se t of var iables. Are societies
wealthy and democratic because their citizens are trusting, cooperative and
engaged? Or do wealth and democracy explain why citizens are able to trust and
engage in civic life (Inglehart, 1997)?
This special symposium highlights three of the most recent and important themes
in the debate about civic engagement and social capital, much of which has been
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00714.x
POLITICAL STUDIES: 2008 VOL 56, 1–11
© 2008The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 Political StudiesAssociation
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