The strange disappearance of Civic America

Robert D. Putnam

Putnam tells to be concerned about a certain ´mystery´: the strange disappearance of social capital and
civic engagement in America. Putnam claims to have found certain evidence which can explain what
happened.
According to him, the Americans who came of age during the Depression and WW2, have been more
engaged than the generations that followed them up, which affected civic life. Studies show that
several kinds of participation, time devoted to clubs or socializing has gone down drastically over the
past three decades. Most of this information comes from the General Social Survey (GSS). There are
exceptions of groups and clubs of which the participation hasn’t changed over the years. After stating
the fact that community life and participation in civic life has decreased, Putnam looks at potential
causes. He notes a number of suggestions which he discusses later in this article.
Putnam uses a scene of questions to test the evidence on means, motive and opportunity. He explains
these three aspects and underlines that evidence or suggestions should always be checked.
Education deepens the mystery
Education appears to have a crucial role when it comes to developing a sense of trust and participation
in society. The last four years of education have 10 times more impact than the first four years, which
means that well-educated people are more likely to be joiners and trusters.
Research shows that in the past three decades fewer adults have had less than 12 years of education
and more people have had 12 years or more. This would imply an increase of social capital life over
the past few decades. But that’s not happening, the GSS shows us otherwise. This brings us another
mystery.
Mobility and suburbanization
Studies show us that residential stability and related stuff as homeownership are associated with
greater civic engagement. Mobility has a part to play. Over the last decades, the rates of residential
mobility have been constant. So the possibility that residential mobility has an influence is not correct,
moving and changing residences has had no influence whatsoever. Also the possibility that different
areas like suburbs or small towns affect trust and participation, seem to not have changed.
Pressure of time and money
Americans feel busier now than generations, or even one generation ago. Economic pressure has his
impact in this. It seems hard to find incriminating evidence, since there are many different studies on
leisure time and the rise or decline in this over the last half decade. The question that remains is
whether longer hours at work lead to lessened involvement in civic life or reduced social trust. Results
from the GSS show surprisingly different types of factors and results.
The changing role of women
The movement of women out of the home and into the paid labor force is probably the most
portentous social change of the last half century. The emerge of two-career families, women in
professional jobs, etc., definitely have an impact on trust and connectedness when we think about
voluntary work, dividing the tasks that women used to do, etc. This can work different ways. No
doubt, the movement of women into the workplace over the last generation has changed the types of
organizations to which they belong, but it is not sure to state that this implies an obvious overall
decrease.
Marriage and family
A widely discussed is whether the downturn in civic engagement is related to the breakdown of the
traditional family unit (mom, dad and kids). Evidence, however, for this theory is unequivocal. The
proportion of unmarried adults has increased, which leaves a society with less ‘family units.’ And,
Putnam says, ‘In short, successful marriage, especially if the family includes children, is statistically
associated with greater social trust and civic engagement’.
The rise of the Welfare State
Evidence has suggested to some observers that an important cause is big government and the growth
of the welfare state. By crowding out private initiative, state intervention has subverted civil society.
Race and the Civil Rights Revolution
Some observers have noted that the decline in social connectedness began just after the successes of
the civil rights revolution of the 1960s. That coincidence has suggested the possibility of a kind of
sociological ‘white flight’ as legal desegregation of civic life led whites to withdraw from community
associations. This evidence is far from conclusive, but it does shift the burden of proof onto those who
believe that racism is a primary explanation for growing civic disengagement over the last two
decades.
Generational effects
Another factor is age. Older people belong to more organizations that young people, and they are less
misanthropic. They also vote more often, read newspapers more frequently. We could also state that
the trust of these older people mostly more often fell than rose. Age doesn’t say everything. Time and
age are notoriously ambiguous in their effects on social behavior. We have to keep in mind three
contrasting phenomena: life cycle effects, period effects and generational effects.
The prime suspect
Putnam has discovered one prominent suspect: television. The timing fits: from the 1950’s till the late
70’s and 80’s, there has been a huge rise in the usage of television. Over time, people start to watch
television at an younger age. Not only does watching television take a huge part of our time, it also
creates an enormous distance between people and society and people as neighbors and residents.
“Each hour spent viewing television is associated with less social trust and less group membership,
while each hour reading a newspaper is associated with more.”
How might TV destroy Social Capital?
Time displacement, effects on the outlook of viewers, effects on children.