What Happened to the "Long Civic Generation"? Explaining Cohort Differences in Volunteerism

Abstract

In Bowling Alone Robert Putnam argues that the passing of the "long civic generation," whose values were molded by the Depression and the Second World War, has resulted in a decline in civic engagement. In this analysis we test the generation hypothesis by comparing the volunteer behavior of two successive generations of women at the same age. No support for Putnam's thesis is found. Once appropriate controls for sociodemographic trends are imposed, generation differences disappear. However, there are cohort differences in the type of volunteer work performed.