Editing Social capital (section)

== Relation with civil society ==
Various authors give definitions of ''[[civil society]]'' that refer to voluntary associations and organisations outside the market and state.<ref name="Alessandrini 2002" /><ref>Cox in Alessandrini (2002)</ref><ref>Schmidt in Alessandrini (2002)</ref><ref>Walzer (1992)</ref> This definition is very close to that of the ''third sector'', which consists of "private organisations that are formed and sustained by groups of people acting voluntarily and without seeking personal profit to provide benefits for themselves or for others."{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}

According to such authors as Walzer (1992), Alessandrini (2002),<ref name="Alessandrini 2002" /> Newtown, Stolle & Rochon, Foley & Edwards (1997),<ref name="Edwards 1997" /> and Walters, it is through civil society, or more accurately, the ''third sector'', that individuals are able to establish and maintain relational networks. These [[voluntary association]]s also connect people with each other, build trust and reciprocity through informal, loosely structured associations, and consolidate society through altruism without obligation. It is "this range of activities, services and associations produced by... civil society" that constitutes the sources of social capital.<ref name="Alessandrini 2002" />

Not only has civil society been documented to produce sources of social capital, according to Lyons' ''Third Sector'' (2001),<ref>{{cite book|title=Third Sector| year=2001| last=Lyons}}</ref> social capital does not appear in any guise under either the factors that enable or those that stimulate the growth of the third sector. Likewise, Onyx (2000) describes how social capital depends on an already functioning community.<ref>Onyx (2000)</ref> The idea that creating social capital (i.e., creating networks) will strengthen civil society underlies current Australian social policy aimed at bridging deepening social divisions. The goal is to reintegrate those marginalised from the rewards of the economic system into "the community." However, according to Onyx (2000), while the explicit aim of this policy is inclusion, its effects are exclusionary.

Foley and Edwards (1997) believe that "political systems...are important determinants of both the character of civil society and of the uses to which whatever social capital exists might be put."<ref name="Edwards 1997" /> Alessandrini agrees, saying that, "in Australia in particular, [[Neoliberalism|neo-liberalism]] has been recast as [[economic rationalism]] and identified by several theorists and commentators as a danger to society at large because of the use to which they are putting social capital to work."<ref name="Alessandrini 2002" />

The resurgence of interest in social capital as a remedy for the cause of today's social problems draws directly on the assumption that these problems lie in the weakening of civil society. However this ignores the arguments of many theorists who believe that social capital leads to exclusion rather than to a stronger civil society.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} In [[international development]], [[Ben Fine]] (2001) and [[John Harriss]] (2001) have been heavily critical of the inappropriate adoption of social capital as a supposed panacea (promoting civil society organisations and NGOs, for example, as agents of development) for the inequalities generated by neoliberal economic development.<ref>[[Ben Fine|Fine, Ben]]. 2001. ''Social Capital versus Social Theory: Political Economy and Social Science at the Turn of the Millennium''. London: Routledge. {{ISBN|0415241790}}.</ref><ref>[[John Harriss|Harriss, John]]. 2001. ''Depoliticizing Development: The World Bank and Social Capital''. [[LeftWord Books|Leftword]] / Anthem / Stylus.</ref> This leads to controversy as to the role of state institutions in the promotion of social capital.
An abundance of social capital is seen as being almost a necessary condition for modern [[liberal democracy]]. A low level of social capital leads to an excessively rigid and unresponsive political system and high levels of corruption, in the political system and in the region as a whole. Formal public institutions require social capital in order to function properly, and while it is possible to have too much social capital (resulting in rapid changes and excessive regulation), it is decidedly worse to have too little.

=== Sample societies ===
'''Post-Communist''': Kathleen Dowley and Brian Silver published an article entitled "Social Capital, Ethnicity and Support for Democracy in the Post-Communist States", in which they find that in [[Post-communist countries|post-communist states]], higher levels of social capital did not equate to higher levels of democracy. However, higher levels of social capital led to higher support for democracy.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 826422|title = Social Capital, Ethnicity and Support for Democracy in the Post-Communist States|journal = Europe-Asia Studies|volume = 54|issue = 4|pages = 505–527|last1 = Dowley|first1 = Kathleen M.|last2 = Silver|first2 = Brian D.|year = 2002|doi = 10.1080/09668130220139145|s2cid = 154303219}}</ref>

'''Third-world''': A number of intellectuals in [[Developing country|developing countries]] have argued that the idea of social capital, particularly when connected to certain ideas about civil society, is deeply implicated in contemporary modes of donor and [[Non-governmental organization|NGO]]-driven [[imperialism]] and that it functions, primarily, to blame the poor for their condition.<ref>see Moore, David, ed. 2007. ''The World Bank''. [[University of KwaZulu-Natal Press]].</ref>

'''Chinese''': The concept of social capital in a Chinese [[social context]] has been closely linked with the concept of ''[[guanxi]]''.

'''American''': One attempt to measure social capital, involving the quantity, quality and strength of an individual social capital, was spearheaded by Corporate Alliance in the English-speaking market segment of the US,<ref>{{cite web|title=corporatealliance.net|url=http://www.corporatealliance.net/|access-date=2014-04-20|publisher=corporatealliance.net|archive-date=20 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080620112321/http://www.corporatealliance.net/|url-status=live}}</ref> and Xentrum through the Latin American Chamber of Commerce in Utah on the Spanish-speaking population of the same country.<ref>{{cite web|title=xentrum.org|url=http://www.xentrum.org/|access-date=2014-04-20|publisher=xentrum.org|archive-date=31 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081031064137/http://www.xentrum.org/|url-status=usurped}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Camara Latinoamericana > Home|url=http://www.camaralatinoamericana.com/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110128191333/http://camaralatinoamericana.com/|archive-date=28 January 2011|access-date=2014-04-20}}</ref> With the assistance of software applications and web-based relationship-oriented systems such as [[LinkedIn]], these kinds of organizations are expected to provide its members with a way to keep track of the ''number'' of their relationships, meetings designed to boost the ''strength'' of each relationship using group dynamics, executive retreats and networking events as well as training in how to reach out to higher circles of ''influential'' people.