Abstract
Few studies consider how Putnam’s bridging and bonding social capital arguments apply to voluntary associations within American minority group communities. Consequently, I examine African-American civic groups to explore Putnam’s claims about the potential negative political effects of bonding social capital. In contrast to the bonding social capital thesis, I argue that black communal associations encourage African-Americans to be involved in a variety of mainstream civic and political activities that reach beyond their own group interests. Using the 1993–1994 National Black Politics Study I demonstrate that although black organizations are predominantly composed of African-Americans and work to advance their interests, these goals are not pursued at the expense of connecting blacks to others in the general polity.
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Notes
Putnam (2000, 19–20) notes a number of scholars are credited for developing this concept. In particular, Coleman (1988, S98) maintains, “Social capital inheres in the structure of relations between actors.” His work examines interactions among individuals in various social settings to understand how individuals work together, exchange information and adhere to group norms.
Levi (1996, 52) notes, “There are innumerable instances when the capacity to engage in collective action is demonstrably a bad thing, for example, Bosnia or Rwanda.”
Granovetter (1973, 1371) makes a similar distinction in his discussion of strong and weak social ties. He notes, “Those whom we are weakly tied to are likely to move in circles different from our own and thus have access to information different from that which we receive.”
Putnam (2000, 23) notes, however, “Under many circumstances both bridging and bonding social capital can have positive social effects.” This important point is not carefully explored in the book.
Putnam (2000, 23) states, “bonding and bridging are not “either-or” categories into which social networks can be neatly divided.” His goal is to use these categories for comparison purposes.
My concerns about the utility of the bridging and bonding categories may apply more generally to a range of American civic groups. Theiss-Morse and Hibbing (2005, 239) note that a variety of bonding voluntary groups “develop citizenship virtues extolled by those who promote civic participation.”
Putnam (2000, 23) acknowledges that black churches simultaneously bond along some social dimensions and bridge across others by bringing together people of the same race and religion across class lines.
Putnam’s (2000, 290–291) social capital index for American states does not include measures of church membership or attendance. He notes that his analysis of church attendance data indicates this form of involvement is “unrelated with the other indicators” (Endnote 9, p. 487).
Also see Uslaner and Conley (2003).
These data are subject to over reporting (see Hadaway et al. 1993). The NBPS data does not allow for an examination of over reporting behavior.
The NAACP and the National Urban League were both founded by white and black citizens. For most of their history, these organizations have stressed the importance of interracial cooperation among groups to promote the advancement of African-American interests and a more just society for all (Moore 1981).
See Harris (1999b) for a discussion of recent changes in black civic life.
Pateman (1970, 35–42) draws upon Cole’s arguments about how citizens’ involvement in industry, associational life and other spheres influence democratic governance.
The NBPS data do not contain vote validation measures to assess over reporting.
The percentage of African-Americans who engage in each activity follows: helping with voter registration 23%, giving money to political candidates 24%, giving people rides to the polls on election days 25%, attending fundraisers 27%, passing out campaign materials 23%, and signing petitions 42%.
The 1996 National Black Election Study does not include these measures.
The Church of God in Christ denomination was originally called the “Church of God”(Lincoln and Mamiya 1990, 80). Thus, the black Pentecostals identifier includes both categories.
Islamic identifiers are not coded as members of black religious denominations. The “Islamic” category (N = 24) includes members of general Sunni, Shiite, or Black Muslims sects.
These data do not show the gains among Pentecostals that other scholars observe (Sherkat 2002). This may be due to the fact that the sample is slightly better educated than the general black population, which might account for greater numbers of Methodist identifiers.
Individuals who are labeled with zeros may vary. They could be affiliated with white churches, participate in “non-traditional” independent black congregations, or not connected with organized religion.
A tabulation of the original variable C6 confirms these figures.
I employ the SPost post-estimation analysis of regression models software. Representative characteristics are determined by using the mean categories or values for continuous variables and the modal categories for dummy variables. These ideal types also had to exist in the data. The characteristics are: age-26 or 43 years old, distruster of the legal system, has a media attentiveness score of 2, has completed 13 years of schooling, is working, non-rural, non-southerner, has a family income of $25K–$30K, homeowner, female, partisanship strength score of 2, is a citizen, not married, has a group identification score of 1, a polar power score of 1, a system blame score of 1, and the typical multiplicative value of the group consciousness interaction term for the sample is 0.
See Billingsley (1999) for a discussion of initiatives by black churches and the agendas of the NAACP (http://www.naacp.org), National Urban League (http://www.nul.org), and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (http://www.bigvote.org).
Due to question wording, the zero category includes a small number of true independents. The analyses were conducted using variations of the partisanship strength variable. The findings are the same.
A few respondents (67 cases or 5.6% of the sample) reported “don’t know” and “refusal” responses for the age question. These cases were recoded to the mean value of age (43) among available respondents. My analyses are conducted both with item-missing responses and mean estimates for comparison. The major results are identical. Multiple imputation techniques have been suggested to treat item non-response in survey analyses. I employ the present approach due to the relatively small amount of missing data for this variable.
Item non-responses are recoded to the mean value of education (13 years of schooling).
The household income measure includes some item non-responses (93 cases or about 8% of the sample). These cases are recoded to the mean income category among available respondents, $25,000–$30,000. My analyses were conducted both with item-missing responses and mean estimates for comparison. The results are identical.
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Acknowledgments
This article greatly benefited from a conversation I had with Fredrick Harris a few years ago. I also thank Irfan Nooruddin for advice on technical matters. I am, however, responsible for any errors.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
1993–1994 NBPS Questions and Response Categories
Strength of Partisanship: I created a partisanship strength scale from responses to the party identification questions in the NBPS. The scale ranges from 0 (nonpartisans) to 3 (strong partisans).Footnote 27
Legal System Trust: I employ a measure of trust in the legal system. The NBPS asks respondents to choose which statement is most true, “Generally speaking, the American legal system treats all groups fairly OR the American legal system is unfair to blacks?” Fair responses are coded as ones, unfair responses are coded with zeros.
Media Attentiveness: I created a media attentiveness variable by constructing an index from responses to three questions regarding respondents’ consumption of news media. The questions ask, “Have you in the past week read a metropolitan newspaper? Have you in the past week read a black newspaper? Have you in the past week listened to a black news program on the radio?” “Yes” responses are coded as ones. “No” responses are coded with zeros. The additive index of these three items ranges from 0 to 3.
Group Consciousness: I employ an interaction variable to capture the multiple dimensions of politicized group consciousness that Miller et al. (1981) discuss in their study of political participation. Miller et al. (1981, 496–497) note there are four specific components of group consciousness: group identification, polar affect, polar power, and system blame. Of these four dimensions, the authors find that an interactive model that combines three key components (group identification, polar power, and system blame) produce the strongest results for explaining the political involvement of subordinate group members (500). The authors note that this alliance of beliefs motivates subordinate groups to use the electoral process to improve their condition. Thus, I operationalize the effects of group consciousness as the interaction between group identification, polar power, and system blame. The group identification component measures agreement with the following question: “Do you think what happens generally to black people in this country will have something to do with what happens in your life?” Those who agree with the statement are coded as ones and others are coded with zeros. Polar power was gauged using the following question: “Do you think blacks have achieved racial equality, will soon achieve equality, will not achieve equality in your lifetime, or will never achieve racial equality?” Respondents who felt that blacks will never achieve racial equality or that equality was not a realistic expectation in their lifetime are coded as ones and others are coded with zeros. The third component, system blame, is measured by agreement with the question: “American society just hasn’t dealt fairly with black people.” Individuals who agree with this statement are coded as ones and others are coded with zeros.
Control Variables: Age is coded in years, ranging from 18 to 99.Footnote 28 Education is coded as the highest grade of school or year of college completed and ranges from 0 to 26.Footnote 29 Women are coded as ones and men are coded with zeros. Total family income is measured in ordinal categories from 1 to 9. Values of one represent individuals with an income from 0 to $10,000, while respondents with incomes of $75,000 and greater are coded as nines.Footnote 30 Homeowners are coded with ones. Non-homeowners are coded with zeros. Respondents who live in rural locations are coded as ones. Non-rural respondents are coded with zeros. Southern respondents are coded as ones. Non-southerners are coded with zeros. Respondents who are employed part or full-time are coded as ones and others are coded as zeros.
Appendix 2
allblkdn | blkpolog | stparty | mediattn | lgltrust | groupid | polarpwr | sysblame | groupcs | educ | rural | working | south | fmincome | gender | age | citizen | married | homeown | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
allblkdn | 1.00 | ||||||||||||||||||
blkpolog | −.01 | 1.00 | |||||||||||||||||
stparty | .20 | .05 | 1.00 | ||||||||||||||||
mediattn | −.00 | .22 | .03 | 1.00 | |||||||||||||||
lgltrust | .06 | −.05 | .05 | −.09 | 1.00 | ||||||||||||||
groupid | −.03 | .14 | −.00 | .17 | −.10 | 1.00 | |||||||||||||
polarpwr | −.04 | .07 | −.01 | .05 | −.13 | .07 | 1.00 | ||||||||||||
sysblame | −.06 | .06 | −.04 | .09 | −.17 | .09 | .15 | 1.00 | |||||||||||
groupcs | −.04 | .12 | .00 | .10 | −.17 | .51 | .69 | .37 | 1.00 | ||||||||||
educ | −.04 | .22 | .01 | .14 | −.06 | .12 | .08 | .06 | .14 | 1.00 | |||||||||
rural | .07 | −.04 | .01 | −.07 | −.01 | −.06 | −.02 | −.00 | −.04 | −.04 | 1.00 | ||||||||
working | −.03 | .11 | −.02 | .07 | −.06 | .07 | .02 | .05 | .10 | .19 | .05 | 1.00 | |||||||
south | .13 | −.05 | .10 | −.08 | .05 | −.05 | −.05 | −.04 | −.06 | .00 | .21 | .02 | 1.00 | ||||||
fmincome | −.02 | .24 | −.02 | .20 | −.07 | .10 | .10 | .07 | .12 | .30 | −.05 | .33 | −.08 | 1.00 | |||||
gender | .06 | −.05 | .09 | −.10 | −.03 | −.14 | −.01 | .04 | −.05 | .02 | .04 | −.04 | .10 | −.13 | 1.00 | ||||
age | .08 | .04 | .15 | .00 | .05 | −.14 | .02 | −.08 | −.09 | −.12 | −.05 | −.28 | .03 | −.06 | .05 | 1.00 | |||
citizen | .13 | .03 | .06 | .01 | .03 | .01 | −.02 | −.02 | .01 | −.03 | .04 | −.02 | .16 | .02 | .03 | .01 | 1.00 | ||
married | .04 | .04 | .01 | .06 | .03 | −.04 | .06 | −.02 | .01 | .06 | .09 | .07 | .05 | .29 | −.06 | .10 | −.01 | 1.00 | |
homeown | .10 | .10 | .09 | .09 | .02 | −.06 | .02 | −.00 | −.01 | .08 | .10 | .06 | .15 | .30 | .01 | .27 | .08 | .22 | 1.00 |
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Mc Kenzie, B.D. Reconsidering the Effects of Bonding Social Capital: A Closer Look at Black Civil Society Institutions in America. Polit Behav 30, 25–45 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-007-9038-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-007-9038-5