Robert D. Putnam “Making Democracy Work: Civic Tradi-

tions in Modern Italy”(Chapter 4, 5, 6)

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Introduction

• After regional reforms in Italy in the 1970s, regions were endowed with considerable pow-ers, where the North of Italy began to flourish while the South re-mained unchanged.

• Putnam in his work tries to understand why such a gap exists in a relatively small area.

Theoretical framework

• Why might social networks and social trust relate to good governance?

Social trust

Social net-works

Civic en-gagement

Accountable representa-tive democ-

racy

Better policy

outputs?

Political trust?

Interesting Fact

• In Russia the book was translated and published two years later, Put-nam's ideas have been proposed as a kind of solutions, some social pre-scription, but apparently the mes-sage has not been understood.

Chapter 4. Explaining Institutional Performance

• Socioeconomic Modernity, that is, the result of the industrial revolution.

• The Civic Community, that is, pat-terns of civic involvement and social solidarity.

• Socioeconomic Modernity, that is, the result of the industrial revolution.

• The Civic Community, that is, pat-terns of civic involvement and social solidarity.

“Civic” community

• Civic engagement• Political Equality• Solidarity, Trust, and Tolerance• Associations: Social Structures of Co-

operation

The civic society: testing the the-ory

Social and Political Life in the Civic Community

Excluded affiliations

• Unions• The Church and Religiosity• Parties

Other Explanations for Institutional Success

• Social Stability• Education• Urbanism• Personnel Stability• The Italian Communist Party (PCI)• Why are some regions more civic

than others?

Chapter 5. Tracing the Roots of the Civic Community

• Various regimes in Italy:

For South

• XI – XII C. Authoritarian regime of Norman kingdom, com-bining the elements of feudal, bureaucratic, and absolutist government.

- After King Frederick's death barons gained power and au-tonomy, but cities and towns did not. Hierarchical structure of South remained essentially unchanged.

• XIV – XVI C. South remained largely unharmed of the de-structive calamities of Black Death and foreign invasions.

- Still, social structure remained highly autocratic and hierar-chical, with kings and barons retaining autocratic powers and the vertical relations based on exploitation and depen-dence remained.

For North

• XIV – XVI C. the northernmost provinces fell back to signatories control, and other regions were also devastated by Black Death and foreign invasions, but elements of civic culture remained.

• Communities based on mutual assistance, common defense and economic coopera-tion sprung up as history moved out of the Dark Ages.

• “credit”

• So, the northern and southern regions of Italy followed a drastically different path of history in their development.

• Briefly, all the elements of the north-ern civic culture remained - as particu-larly well exemplified by rapid devel-opments of mutual aid societies, co-operatives, and the labor unions. Meanwhile, the South remained just as well hierarchical in structure as they always have been.

Chapter 6. Social Capital and Insti-tutional Success

• Dilemmas of Collective Action- Game theories- Absence of mutual commitment- Trust- The leviathan

Social Capital, Trust, and Rotating Credit Associations

• Social capital = TRUST, norms, and networks, that can improve the effi-ciency of society by facilitating coor-dinated actions.

• A rotating credit association

Norms of Reciprocity and Networks of Civic Engagement

• Social norms, when an action has ex-ternalities for others.

• Reciprocity is of two sorts, sometimes called “balanced” (or specific) and “generalized” (or diffuse).

• Effective Norm of Reciprocity=dense networks of social exchange.

• Interpersonal communication (hori-zontal, vertical and mixed)

Networks of Civil Engage-ment

• Four side effects:1) Increase the potential costs to a de-

fector.2) Foster robust norms of reciprocity.3) Facilitate communication and im-

prove the flow of information.4) Embody past success at collaboration

and promote future collaboration.

History and Institutional Perfor-mance: Two Social Equilibria

• Case of America• South America: - Tradition of hierarchical- Catholic culture- Familism- Exploitation• North America:- Decentralization- Civism- English patrimony

Critique

• Associations could be temporary (?)• Only one case • Exclusion of some Organizations

Thank you!