| Description: |
This paper examines social capital with particular reference to societies where distrust of has been the norm. The first section describes alternative relationships between individuals and institutions in civil and uncivil societies. The second makes clear the important distinction between social network capital and organizational capital. The former can be used to achieve freedom from the state; the latter implies a trustworthy state. The third section presents empirical survey data from the New Democracies Barometer in nine post-Communist societies--Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Belarus and Ukraine. The data measure trust, scepticism and distrust in 15 institutions. The following sections use multivariate analysis to account for differences in individual levels of trust, and discuss the implications for theories of civic democracy.
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