Contents
Putnam discussed ways in which Americans disengaged from political involvement, including decreased voter turnout, attendance at public meetings, utility on committees, and develope with political parties. Putnam also cited Americans' growing distrust in their government. Putnam accepted the opportunity that this lack of trust could be attributed to "the long litany of political tragedies and scandals since the 1960s", but believed that this version was limited when viewing it alongside other "trends in civic engagement of a wider sort".
Putnam identified the aggregate waste in membership and number of volunteers in many existing B'nai Brith, etc., labor unions, Federation of Women's Clubs, League of Women Voters, military veterans' organizations, volunteers with Boy Scouts and the Red Cross, and fraternal organizations Lions Clubs, Benevolent and Protective configuration of Elks, United States Junior Chamber, Freemasonry, Rotary, Kiwanis, etc.. Putnam used bowling as an example to illustrate this; although the number of people who bowled had increased in the last 20 years, the number of people who bowled in leagues had decreased. if people bowled alone, they did non participate in the social interaction and civic discussions that might occur in a league environment.
Putnam cites data from the General Social Survey that showed an aggregate decline in membership of traditional civic organizations, supporting his thesis that U.S. social capital had declined. He noted that some organizations had grown, such(a) as the American connection of Retired Persons, the Sierra Club, and a plethora of mass-member activist groups. But he said that these groups did not tend to foster face-to-face interaction, and were the type where "the only act of membership consists in writing a check for dues or perhaps occasionally reading a newsletter." He also drew a distinction between two different rank of social capital: a "bonding" type which occurs within a demographic chain and a "bridging" type which unites people from different groups.
He then asked: "Why is US social capital eroding?" and discussed several possible causes. He believed that the "movement of women into the workforce" and other demographic redesign had an impact on the number of individuals engaging in civic associations. He also discussed the "re-potting hypothesis", that people become less engaged when they frequently proceed towns, but found that Americans actually moved towns less frequently than in previous decades. He didthat suburbanization, economics and time pressures had some effect, though he noted that average working hours had shortened. He concluded the main create was engineering science "individualizing" people's leisure time via television and the Internet, suspecting that "virtual reality helmets" would carry this further in the future.
He estimated that the fall-off in civic engagement after 1965 was 10% due to pressure of work and double-career families, 10% to suburbanisation and commuting, 25% to the individualisation of media television, and 50% to ‘generational change’. 5% remained unexplained.
Putnam suggested closer studies of which forms of associations could create the greatest social capital, and how various aspects of technology, turn in social equality, and public policy impact social capital. He closed by emphasizing the importance of discovering how the United States could reverse the trend of social capital decay.