Social Capital for Shaping Norms to Address Democratic Legitimacy and Inclusion?

• In Event: What Good Are Democratic Innovations? Evidence from Around the World

Abstract

Much discussion on addressing different problems of democracy have focused on institutional transformations or policy-making to make systems of governance more inclusive. Many national agendas to-date examine their practice of democracy which reflects an emphasis on systemic institutional development or reform, that side-steps the often-contested norms and values on which the institutional transformations for further democratic consolidation stem from.

This paper focuses on two questions: (1) What explains national focus on institutional transformation for democratic governance? (2) What role does / can ‘social capital’ have within democratic governance strategy? The paper takes a comparative examination of how states have been addressing legitimacy and inclusion problems within their democracies. The latter half of the paper explores the concept of ‘social capital’ as discussed by Robert Putnam and Pippa Norris among others, in relation to its potential for re-shaping of democratic norms and values. The paper explores the potential argument for inclusion of social capital into democratic governance strategies by states as a democratic innovation to shape and strengthen norms within democratic states, in particular at times of crises.

Author

• Dale Mineshima-Lowe, Birkbeck, University of London