'Bowling Alone': Frame 11

"The Strange Disappearance of Civic America" by Robert D. Putnam, in The American Prospect (Winter 1996), P.O. Box 383080, Cambridge, Mass. 02238; "Tuning in, Tuning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America" by Robert D. Putnam, in PS: Political Science & Politics (Dec. 1995), American Political Science Assn., 1527 New Hampshire Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.

If more Americans these days are "bowling alone," then what is the cause? In a much-discussed article last year [see "The Periodical Observer," WQ, Spring ‘95, p. 137], Putnam, the director of Harvard’s Center for International Affairs, mustered mounds of data to argue that American civil society has dangerously decayed. He captured the trend in one powerful image: even as that all-American communal institution, the bowling league, has been fast declining, Americans are bowling more than ever before—alone.

"Americans today are significantly less engaged with their communities than was true a generation ago," he maintains. There have been major declines in membership in groups such as the PTA and in "social trust" (as measured by poll respondents who agree that "most people can be trusted"). This civic decay has occurred despite a massive rise in educational levels; in general, "well-educated people are much more likely to be joiners and civic trusters."

To continue reading this article, please download the PDF above.