Politics Essays Making Democracy Work

Politics judges making Democracy WorkMaking Democracy WorkA Review of Robert Putnams Making Democracy WorkIntroductionSince its publication in 1993, Robert Putnams Making Democracy Work Civic Traditions in in advance(p) Italy has been hai guide for changing the way academics and policy-makers cost the relationship between politics and society. Putnam accomplishes this feat not so much with his compelling arguments, but with the innovative methodology he employs.Much attention has already been given to the way Putnam combines quantitative and soft data in his research he amalgamates numerical data on Italian institutional military operation and civil culture, with the path-dependent historical legacy that predates it. Similarly, much attention has also been focused on the introduction of social capital as a new unsettled decent of social scientists understandation. Since these topics have already been exhausted in reviews as well as other literature connected to Putnams book, this essay lead onset to go a different route.This essay will primarily argue that Putnam has successfully managed to combine both a structure and agency-centered appeal into a viscid research construct project. Firstly, the structural improvement is inherent in Putnams study due to the fact that he is attempting to analyze why Italian divisions with the a desire(p) political structure perform differently. Secondly, using interlocking analytic thinking, Putnams social capital and polite culture changeables will be understood as existence related to agency and of affecting institutional performance. Finally, the overall strengths and weakness that arise from blend the devil approaches in a research design project will be highlighted. Overall, scorn several unavoidable limitations, in Making Democracy Work Putnam shows that using a combined structuration approach is capable of harvesting a fuller agreement of a particular issue in this event, Italian institutiona l performance.The Study and the SettingIn 1970 the highly centralized Italian disposal set-up identical regional governmental institutions in each of the countrys twenty regions. The experiment offered Robert Putnam and his colleagues a unique opportunity to analyze institutional performance over time, and what precisely makes government work in a setting where depicted object factors and institutional design are held constant.Despite the fact that all the Italian regions got identical institutions, the performance of these institutions varied widely across Italy. The discrepancy between the regions particularly between the conglutination and the southwest led Putnam to believe that social mount and recital profoundly condition the effectiveness of institutions (Putnam, 182). Therefore, in the causative argument that Putnam puts forth in order to explain what affects institutional performance, institutions are framed as both an independent and dependent variable. So to spea k, even though institutions do shape politics, institutions themselves are shaped by social context and register. For this reason, Putnam considers yet some other independent variable in his complex causal relationship civic culture.Putnams MethodologyBefore analyzing how structure and agency unite, and the way in which civic culture is measured in Making Democracy Work, it is worthwhile to take a look at the broader and overarching methodological backdrop on the grounds of which Robert Putnams study takes root.The setting for the study, as alluded to above, offered Robert Putnam and his colleagues the opportunity to embark on a twenty year voyage of inquiry their choice of vessel, a sub- internal comparison. Certainly with the pillow slip of Italian institutional performance a sub-national paired comparison is sure to prove more than illuminating than a cross-national comparison because one can hold-constant for national context. That being said, it is necessary to note that often when one considers cultural, historical, economic and/or socioeconomic conditions, there will invariably be cases where greater variation exists at bottom countries than does between them (Snyder, 96).The experience of Italy provides a unique backdrop for Putnam to study institutional performance because many factors are held constant, relatively speaking. Aside from holding institutional design constant, Italy is a far less diverse country than say India or even Russia with regards to language, religion, ethnicity, class and caste. Though it powerfulness prove hard for Putnams methods to last beyond a Western context and be directly applied, it should not be held against him or discredit his book by any means.Just because the arguments might have difficulty traveling (and we should note that Putnams arguments in Making Democracy Work are the underpinnings of his second book Bowling Alone The violate and Revival of the American Community) does not mean that they should be judged negatively. After all, this is the precise purpose of a sub-national paired comparison to develop theories or generalizations that one is futile to make through cross-national paired comparisons due to all the intervening variables that cannot be held constant.Furthermore, Making Democracy Work does not qualify merely as a sub-national paired comparison. Putnam really tests his arguments against a broad spectrum. In so doing, he avoids the common problem of selection bias, and derivatively of false dichotomies. Putnam does not pick and choose the regions he incorporates in his study. Making Democracy Work is extensive in that it includes and considers all of the regions in Italy equally, and weighs them up against the same credo (where information permits).In each region Putnam interprets quantitative data on institutional performance and then analyzes it alongside quantitative data regarding its civic culture. He then pushes the envelope by make far-beyond direct causa l inference and into history. The historical qualitative data that Putnam accumulates, allows him, ostensibly, to isolate the main factor that leads to variance in institutional performance in Federal and Southern Italy social capital.Making Democracy Work benefits from diverse measurements the indicators used are wide-ranging, innovative, impressive, and provide for a superior demonstration of Putnams arguments. In fact, it is the combine of both the quantitative and qualitative data that earn Robert Putnam and Making Democracy Work the recognition of being simultaneously both a large-N and small-N sub-national comparison.Structural ForcesHaving located out the methodological framework that Putnam has developed it is now possible to focus on the structuration approach that he incorporates. The explanation of institutional performance the dependent variable is contingent to a certain degree on a structural analysis.While all the regions in Italy are constrained by the same na tional structural force the highly centralized government, the regions are also constrained by their own historical legacies and the structures that have emerged from the past. In this sense, according to Putnam, the history of the North has cultivated an arena/structure much more conducive to proper institutional performance than has the South.Putnam chooses twelve indicators as reason of institutional performance, or equitable government. These indicators include Cabinet stability, budget promptness, statistical and information services, reform legislation, legislative innovation, day care centers, family clinics, industrial policy instruments, agricultural spending capacity, local anaesthetic health unit expenditures, housing and urban development and bureaucratic responsiveness.Far from agency-centered, the conditions of these indicators are all determined by the structure in which they are situated. Essentially, the greater the influence of the structure, the more predictab le the political behaviour is comparablely to be. Following Putnams path-dependent argument that historical legacies shape the structural forces (which come to light from much(prenominal) indicators), it is important to then consider the nature of the historical legacies themselves. In Putnams view the historical legacies worth exploring are those of civic culture.Analyzing the Affects AgencyThe affects of agency on Italian institutional performance is not analyzed explicitly in Making Democracy Work. Putnam does not look at individual leaders, regional representatives, or even influential citizens in any of Italys diverse regions contemporarily nor historically. However, implicit in his definition of civic culture, as the norms of reciprocity and networks of civic engagement (Putnam, 167) is an understanding of agency nonetheless. If agency is based on the actions and decisions of a single person, it moldiness also be based on the interactions and collective wills of many peopl e.A horizontal-network analysis is an ideal approach to take when trying to understand the affects of agency in regional patterns of behavior. From a nominalist meridian of view the researcher must use a conceptual framework to define the boundaries of the network or who/what is and is not included in the research agenda.For his part, Putnam proposes four indicators in which one can find evidence of a civic culture these indicators include participation in voluntary associations, newspaper readership, referenda spellout, and personalized preference voting (or lack thereof). Even though groups like football clubs are internally heterogeneous and diverse, network analysis helps Putnam to disentangle the inherent complexity and to highlight the important aspects of functioning as a group.To the flow of emphasis, the fact that Putnam also correlates these objective measures with more opinion-based survey indicators of civic culture goes to show that Putnam is committed to incorporat ing the role of agency in his research design. Essentially, he moves from a nominalist to a more realist network analysis by focusing on the individuals. More specifically, Putnam shows that network boundaries are established based on the subjective perspectives of the network actors themselves. For this reason, the data in his research is based to large degree on surveys, questionnaires and interviews.The difference between the North and the South of Italy therefore, can be expressed in the different types of networks they produce. Putnam considers all of the following the different types of networks that exist, the organization of the networks, and the individuals within the networks. Relating to the different types of networks, Putnam notices that the density of networks in the North is much greater than in the South.Not only(prenominal) do more social groups exist in the North, but membership in them is greater and the pattern of ties between the members is stronger. With regar ds to the networks organization, in the North there is a higher frequency of interaction, and a larger amount of emotional investment within the network. Lastly, as far as individuals are concerned, Putnam looks at subjective measures like trust, solidarity, personal closeness and ideological proximity to ultimately discern that in Northern Italy individuals are more likely to enter horizontal-networks and develop a more cohesive civic culture that fosters responsive government and higher institutional performance.Strengths and Weakness of StructurationIn a sense, Putnam has combined a structural and agency approach into a single research design. The structuration approach has several strength and weaknesses worth highlighting, particularly with reference to Making Democracy Work. Perhaps the major benefit of combining the analysis of structure and agency in the case of Italian institutional performance is that Putnam is able to recognize and demonstrate the interplay between the tw o.Putnam shows how structures and agents are co-determining and mutually implicating. When assessing the causal relationship between civic culture and Italian institutional performance the case is made that the two entities are defined by their internal relationship, such that the two entities derive their meaning by their relationship and have no meaning or basis without the other. People produce the structure, and the structure in turn reproduces the people. So to speak, agents and structures are ontologically equal in Making Democracy Work.Inherit in this methodological approachs greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. One of the major problems with operationalizing the structuration approach is that it is often difficult to design a research strategy that can draw valid causal inferences. As with the case of Making Democracy Work, the difficulty in making inferences is determining whether something is a cause or an effect there has to be a starting point for an analysi s.One inevitably has to choose a bottom-up or top-down approach treating either agent or structure as ontologically primitive. Robert Putnam, by discreet them ontologically equal has failed to choose a starting point for analysis. Instead of a parsimonious and simple linear causal relationship, Putnam points to vicious and virtuous circles that have led to contrasting, path dependent social equlibria (Putnam, 180). Good or bad institutional performance will further continue a history of good or bad civic culture. More so, the correlation between civic associations and social capital that Putnam professes is also circularWhile to think purely in foothold of linear causation is to do injustice to the overall interconnectedness of the variables, the danger of thinking in terms of equilibria is that you develop a chicken or orb scenario. One begins to beg the question of where in history it is right to draw the line when studying Italian civic culture?Indeed, Putnams historical evide nce has become the focus of considerable criticism from scholars. Sidney Tarrow, in Making Social Science Work across Time and Space, contends that social scientists go to history with a theory to prove, and do not objectively derive viable generalizations from history. History requires picking and choosing one must even choose where in history to draw the line before beginning a study. However, if a line can always be drawn back farther one must ask whether cases can really be isolable and independent at all.For example, can the case not be made that because the North of Italy colonized the South, that the problems of the South are really the problems of the North? Some critics say that it is unfair for Putnam to displace the problem of poor institutional performance on the South and not to consider the possibility of contamination.However, Putnam can hardly be criticized for this everything can be understood as ex post facto something else. Irrespective of whether Putnam is right or wrong on where in history he draws his line, Making Democracy Work should be hailed for its attempt to regardless of its actual success at combining quantitative and qualitative data, and structure and agency, in creating a complex causal relationship.ConclusionIn Making Democracy Work Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Robert Putnam has successfully managed to unite both a large-N and small-N sub-national comparison into a single model of inquiry. Equally as impressive, he has successfully managed to combine both a structure and agency-centered approach into a cohesive research design project. Putnam uses a structural approach to analyze his dependent variable political institutions, and an agency-centered approach to analyze an independent variable that has an affect on the development of political institutions and their efficacy civic culture.In so doing, Putnam manages to turn political institutions into an independent variable too, highlighting the interconnectedness of the two variables. Due to this interconnected circular nature of Putnams argument, Putnams study of Italian institutional performance, though both descriptive and predictive, lacks convincing prescriptive capabilities. Nevertheless, despite its prescriptive shortcomings, Putnam shows that using a combined structuration approach is capable of harvesting a fuller understanding of a particular issue in this case, Italian institutional performance.Works CitedPutnam, Robert D. Making Democracy Work Civic Traditions in Modern Italy(Princeton Princeton University Press, 1993).Snyder, Richard. Scaling Down The Subnational Comparative Method, Studies in Comparative International growth 261 (Spring 2001), pp. 93-110.Works ConsultedDwainpayan, Bhattacharyya, et al. (eds.) Interrogating Social Capital The Indian Experience. (New Delhi Sage Publications, 2004).Furlong, Paul. Review of Robert Putnams Making Democracy Work Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, International Affairs 70 (January 1994) , pp. 172.Kwon, Hyeong-Ki. Associations, Civic Norms, and Democracy Revisiting the Italian Case, Theory and Society 33 (2004), pp. 135-166.Levi, Margaret. Social and Unsocial Capital A Review Essay of Robert Putnams Making Democracy Work, Politics and Society24 (March 1996), pp. 45-55.Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York Simon and Schuster, 2000).Sabetti, Filippo. Path Dependency and Civic Culture Some Lessons from Italy near Interpreting Social Experiments, Politics and Society 24 (March 1996), pp. 19-44.Tarrow, Sidney. Making Social Science Work Across Space and Time A Critical consideration on Robert Putnams Making Democracy Work, American Political Science Review 90 (June 1996), pp. 389-397.