SOCIAL CAPITAL AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT: A NEW EXAMINATION OF THE THESIS OF THE VIRTUOUS CIRCLE

Abstract

For decades, the social science literature has maintained the theoretical thesis of the virtuous circle between social capital and civic engagement. This work tries to throw empirical evidence on the validity of this theoretical thesis. Based on two theoretical conceptions of social capital (one focused on interpersonal trust and the other on the existence of community networks) and using panel data (three waves) from a sample of the United States population, this study applies a cross-lagged model with structural equations to check the possible causal relationships between these two phenomena over time. The results show that there is no symmetric relationship between these two phenomena, but rather that the effect of civic engagement on social capital is stronger and more consistent than the opposite effect. Thus, regardless of the type of social capital measurement, civic engagement precedes social capital in a more consistent way than the other way around.