PATTERNS OF SOCIAL CAPITAL

Societies work best where citizens trust their fellow citizens, work cooperatively for common goals, and thus share a civic culture. The accumulation of reciprocal trust, as demonstrated by voluntary efforts to create common goods, builds social capital and contributes to effective government. This volume advances the study of social capital across chronological and geographical space. It examines voluntary associations, comparatively and cross-culturally, as indicators of citizen readiness for civic engagement. This book is ultimately about the pattern of social and civic interactions in past times, and how these patterns may no longer exist.