Social_Capital

Social Capital Introduction Social capital has commonly been studied in recent years from the perspective of sociology and political science. Through the various different works of Robert Putnam, Francis Fukuyama, and James Coleman, as well as others, the complexity of social capital has been broken down to people’s relationships and the values which they hold with each other. Social capital has been regarded as a useful element in democratic governance (Putnam) and economic stability in countries (Fukuyama). Trust has become a main element in the development of social capital. Civic engagement, social networking, and participation in public organizations help boost social capital, but these trends are on the decline in America. Many theorists believe this is the reason for our lack of trust in the government. If the people do not place trust in each other, than how can they trust the people which they elect into office. This is the very concept in which I developed my hypothesis: In comparing individuals, people who place more trust in others are more likely to trust their government than are people who place less trust in each other. The independent variable for this experiment will be the level of trust placed in others by people and social, capital, trust, government, data, people, variable, putnam, hypothesis, place, between, two, fukuyama, experiment, democracy, states, political, variables, independent, public, others, civic, american, relationship, policy, marsh, knack, dependent, both, subfields, study, politics, one, much, help, therefore