Re-examining a modern classic
Does Putnam's Making Democracy Work suffer from spuriousness
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12535331 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joan Barceló (0000-0001-6965-4342, New York University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 457-471 |
| Publication date | 2014-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern Italy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1353-2944 • E-ISSN: 1469-9877 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13532944.2014.969215 |
| OpenAlex | W1986083851 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 26 |
What makes democratic institutions work efficiently? Robert Putnam argued in Making Democracy Work that a mixture of political participation and immersion in associative and social networks in the community, conceptualised as ‘civic community’ or ‘social capital’, is the explanation. Ever since its publication, many questions have arisen about the validity of Putnam's theory. Among the most relevant concerns stands the influence of the Italian Communist Party on Putnam's empirical tests. This paper aims to fill the gap left in the literature by testing Putnam's hypothesis against the political party in the regional government and the PCI's electoral support. Supporting Putnam, this paper finds that variations in the quality of democratic governments in Italy's regions are a function of civic community even after adjusting for the presence of the Italian Communist Party
Communism · Democracy · Economics · Empirical research · Epistemology · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Social capital · Social science · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Capital and Networks
Further selections from the prison notebooks
The Sage Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods
Critical Citizens
Political Power and Social Theory
Making Social Science Work Across Space and Time
Political Disaffection in Contemporary Democracies
Social Capital
Democratic Deficit
Making Democracy Work
Social and Unsocial Capital
Understanding Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research
Cultural Values, Stable Democracy, and Economic Development
Making Democracy Work
The Paradox of Civil Society
Culture, Institutions, and Economic Growth
A Renaissance of Political Culture
Civics or Structure? Revisiting the Origins of Democratic Quality in the Italian Regions
Explaining Institutional Success
Making Social Science Work Across Space and Time
Path Dependency and Civic Culture
Thinking about how Democracy Works
Social Capital in the Social Democratic Welfare State
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |