Bridging Social Capital

Bridging Social Capital and Polarization in American Society The community engagement of American citizens has been undergoing a pattern of steady decline for decades, leading to a loss of what Robert Putnam calls “social capital”. While Putnam offers an extensive discussion on the negative effects of losing both “bridging” and “bonding” social capital, he does not work to draw a connection between social capital and America’s political landscape. Bridging capital networks as defined by Putnam are networks that “are outward looking and encompass people across diverse social cleavages”. The loss of bridging social capital throughout American society has led to an increasingly polarized political landscape. To examine this thesis multiple

In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam discusses this transformation in the political sphere stating that the decrease in political engagement disproportionately affected moderates. When examining the effects of declining social capital on democracy, Putnam states that the number of self proclaimed moderates who were likely to participate in political activities decreased by about 50 percent between 1970 and 1990. During the same time frame the decrease with moderate liberals and moderate conservatives was nearly one-third, while those who described themselves as very liberal or very conservative saw a noticeably smaller decrease. The evident decline in political participation among moderates paved the way for increased political polarization among the electorate. The participation of politically moderate citizens allowed for a more ideologically diverse political sphere and a variety of information. As explained in greater detail later, the creation of political opinions in the American citizenry is driven, in part, by the most recently received information; therefore, the loss of variety among sources of information led to an equal loss of variety among political opinions. As moderate engagement declined, so too did moderate sources of information allowing the remaining radicals to further drive apart the electorate through their

Before attempting to determine how an increase in bridging social capital would remedy the causes of polarization, the changes brought about in society through bridging social capital alone should be explained. According to Putnam, bridging social capital in a society fosters “broader identities and reciprocity” and allows for the smooth interaction between societal groups. A society benefits from its citizens having broader identities as this combats the compartmentalization of society along racial, religious, or socioeconomic lines, allowing for a more united citizenry. The creation of reciprocity in a society is beneficial in multiple ways: first, the interactions between different groups are based on the idea of mutual benefit; second, the exchanging of ideas and willingness to help other societal factions allows for empathy when considering the problems facing other members of