Social Capital, Trends in

The United States

The United States has undergone two major social capital cycles in its history. After a boom in associational life during the 1830s (famously documented by the French author Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805–1859), urbanization and industrialization placed strains on civic life. But from 1880 to 1910, the Progressive Era saw a dramatic upsurge in social capital, as new organizations, clubs, and newspapers came into being. Social capital remained strong during the Depression, and the World War II era saw another rise in civic activity.

From the late 1950s onward, these trends began to change. In 1960, 62.8 percent of the eligible population turned out to choose between John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) and Richard Nixon (1913–1994) in the presidential election. Yet in the presidential election of 2000, only 51.0 percent of eligible voters actually went to the polls. During the past twenty-five years, the fraction of Americans who say they follow current affairs has dropped by one-fifth. As political parties become more professionalized, the fraction of the population that works on campaigns, writes letters to political representatives, or attends political rallies has slipped backward.

Large participatory civic groups, such as Lions Clubs and parent-teacher associations (PTAs), have also suffered during this time. In the early 1960s, almost half of all families with children under the age of eighteen years were PTA members. By the 1980s, this number had fallen to around one in five. The general trend of falling organizational involvement is reinforced by surveys that asked respondents to keep a detailed record of all their activities, and the amount of time devoted to each task. This “time-diary” evidence shows that the average American invested 3.7 hours per month in organizational life in 1965, but only 2.9 in 1975, and 2.3 in 1985 and 1995.

Another form of social capital that declined during the last four decades of the twentieth century was attendance at churches or other places of worship. Depending on whether church records or surveys are used, involvement in religious activities fell by 25 to 50 percent. This is particularly significant for African American communities, since black churches have acted as crucibles for activism, both during and after the civil rights struggle.

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