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Cited by 71Social Capital and NetworksSocial Policy and Reform StudiesSocial Power and Status Dynamics

Beyond Tocqueville: The Origins of Social Capital in Switzerland

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Freitag, M.·2003·European Sociological Review
DOI 10.1093/esr/19.2.217
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Abstract

This paper evaluates the foundations of social capital as measured in terms of social trust in Switzerland. Specifically, the standard view that face‐to‐face interaction within voluntary associations is the dominant way to create social capital (the so‐called Tocqueville model) will be challenged. While providing no support for the thesis that active membership in associations fosters social trust, our results strongly support explanations that point to personal resources, social background variables, psychological determinants, and individual attitudes, which can only be explained effectively by the socialization process within the family and in early adulthood experiences. In fact, based on the Swiss data from the World Values Survey in the mid‐1990s, social trust is contingent upon life satisfaction, confidence in political and societal institutions, education, cosmopolitan culture, daily television consumption, and regional provenance.

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  • Several controls on both individual and contextual levels are considered to avoid spurious effects between the religion variables and social trust.

    “In order to avoid spurious effects between the religion variables and social trust, several controls on both the individual and contextual levels are considered”

    From Moral Communities? Religion as a Source of Social Trust in a Multilevel Analysis of 97 German Regions (2011) · cites this paper as Freitag 2003

    The Measurement Issues section (page unavailable) says the paper controls for television viewing, age, gender, regional or linguistic provenance, and marital status in its analysis of social trust. It does not describe these controls as addressing spurious effects between religion variables and social trust, nor does it identify separate individual- and contextual-level controls. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Research works printed but not linked: 10

  1. Bourdieu, P. (1983) Úkonoisches Kapital, kulturelles Kapital, soziales Kapital. In Kreckel, R. (ed.) Soziale Ungleichheiten. G˛ttingen, Verlag Otto Schwartz and Co. Soziale Welt Sonderband 2, pp. 183^198.
  2. Glaeser, E.L., Laibson, D.I., Scheinkman, J.A. and Soutter, C.L. (2000) Measuring trust. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115, 811^846.
  3. Inglehart, R. (1990) Cultural Shift in Advanced Industrial Society. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
  4. Deth, J. van (ed.) Private Groups and Public Life: Social Participation, Voluntary Associations and Political Involvement in Representative Democracies. Routledge, London, pp. 163^182.
  5. Joye, D. and Renschler, I. (1996) Social Capital and Local Living: The Example of 4 Swiss Cities. Unpublished paper, Conference on Social Capital, Milan.
  6. Kunz, V. and Gabriel, O.W. (2000) Soziale Integration und politische Partizipation: Das Konzept des Sozialkapitals ^ein brauchbarer Ansatz zur ErklÌr- ung politischer Partizipation? In Druwe, U., Kˇhnel, S.M., and Kunz, V. (eds) Kontext, Akteur und strategische Interaktion. Untersuchungen zur Organisation politischen Handelns in modernen Gesellschaften. Leske und Budrich, Opladen, pp. 47^74.
  7. Newton, K. (1999b) Social capital and European demo- cracy. In Deth, J. van, Mara⁄, M., Newton, K., and Whiteley, P. (eds) Social Capital and European Democracy. Routledge, London, pp. 3^24.
  8. Newton, K. and Norris, P. (2000) Con¢dence in public institutions: faith, culture, or performance? In Pharr, S.J. and Putnam, R.D. (eds) Disa¡ected Democracies: What's Troubling the Trilateral Countries? Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, pp. 52^73.
  9. Norris, P. (2001) Making Democracies Work: Social Capi- tal and Civic Engagement in 47 Societies. Paper presented to the European Science Foundation EURESCO Conference on Social Capital: Interdisci- plinary Perspectives, University of Exeter, 15^20 September 2001.
  10. Winter, I. (2000) Major themes and debates in the social capital literature: the Australian connection. In Winter, I. (ed.) Social Capital and Public Policy in Australia. Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne, pp. 17^42.

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Authors
Freitag, M.
Affiliations
University of Bern (CH)
Corresponding author
Freitag, M.
Venue
European Sociological Review
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2003-04-01
Volume
19
Issue
2
Pages
217-232
ISSN
  • 0266-7215 (ISSN-L)
  • 1468-2672
DOI
10.1093/esr/19.2.217
OpenAlex
W2090144721
Cited by
71
References
68
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 7
FWCI
10.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • European Sociological Review (publishedVersion)
  • reroDoc Digital Library (submittedVersion)
  • Bern Open Repository and Information System (University of Bern) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • ETH Zürich Research Collection
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Capital and Networks
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Social Policy and Reform Studies
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Power and Status Dynamics
Keywords
social capital, social trust, civil society organizations, face-to-face interaction, association membership, family socialization, early adulthood, life satisfaction, institutional trust, cosmopolitanism, television viewing, regional identity, Switzerland

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