Applying The Concepts of Bonding and Bridging Social Capital to Empirical Research

Abstract

This article explores the differing potential of voluntary associations to build bonding and bridging social capital. Our argument is that voluntary associations do not always have the same effects, and thus that there is a need for further theoretical and empirical differentiation. Using data from a representative German population study carried out in June 2001 and coordinated by the Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy project, we conduct an empirical test of the validity of the theoretical differentiation between the two types. Our attempt to assign bonding and bridging capacities to voluntary associations seems to be supported. The analysis focuses on West Germany whose vibrant voluntary sector has proved to be an important factor underlying the sustainable societal development of democratic attitudes and behaviour in recent decades. Scientific political research now stresses the importance of differentiating between bridging (inclusive) and bonding (exclusive) social capital. Putnam (2000) argues that depending on the characteristics of the available social capital, one can either expect cooperation, generalised trust and institutional effectiveness, or sectarian tendencies, corruption and ethnocentrism.