activity in non-political institutions such as school, the workplace and church (1995,
269–73). According to the social capital theory of political participation, low levels
of political participation in areas or among groups is a result of one, or a combination
of both, the attitudinal and recruitment mechanisms.
In this paper, I test the social capital account of political participation. I question
the links between social capital and political engagement, arguing that previous work
in the field is characterized by a gap between the theory of social capital and empirical
tests of the effects of the concept, leading to potentially erroneous results. What sets
social capital apart is its focus on social relations and social structure, yet nearly
all empirical work uses individual-level measures of the concept. Thus, with a more
lucid account of the theory and more appropriate operationalization of social capital
that recognizes the community, or macro-level, nature of the concept, it is possible
to more rigourously assess its impact on political participation within and between
communities. Before testing whether social capital is a good predictor of political
participation, however, it is worthwhile to take a closer look at the empirical evidence
underpinning claims made about the roots of social capital. That is, does activity in
voluntary associations lead to the norms of reciprocity and trust claimed by Putnam
and others (e.g. Putnam 1993, Putnam 2000, Wollebæk & Selle 2003)?
The paper is organized as follows. In the next section, I begin by outlining the
theory of social capital, how it has been conceptualized and operationalized and the
hypotheses about the connection between social capital and political participation
that grow out of this conceptualization. Section 3 assesses the hypothesized link
between civic engagement (activity in voluntary associations and other face-to-face
interaction) and generalized trust, which is central to the social capital literature. I
offer an alternative explanation of generalized trust that rests on life satisfaction. In
section 4 I test the claims made about the relationship between political participation
and social capital. I first specify a model that uses the common individual-level
measures of social capital. The performance of this model in reducing inter-city
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Convention