SOCIAL CAPITAL IN THE BALKANS: ARE SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS IMPORTANT? CAN POLICY ASSUMPTIONS BE SUPPORTED?

Abstract

The present paper introduces country-by-country overviews of survey results from nationally representative samples from Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro, analyzing the link between some important socio-demographic factors and various measures of social capital, as well as at looking for support of some assumptions underlying different policy proposals targeting the level of social capital. Results indicate that in most cases, gender, age, and income have very weak explanatory power. Education and ethnic structure are statistically significant determinants of social capital in some cases, but there are substantive differences between countries. Possibly the most consistently important factor is the type of place of residence of the respondents, with most of the time the link being negative, indicating that people living in smaller settlements tend to exhibit higher levels of social capital. In terms of policy assumptions, the one which is relatively well conforming with the survey results from Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro, is that empowerment of local authorities may enhance social trust and civic participation. The assumption which is very tentatively supported, is that improvements in institutional performance cause higher subjective evaluations of this performance and from there – higher trust. The assumptions which find no support in the four surveys, are that income and general economic well-being result in higher social capital, and that enhanced personal security is also positively related to social capital.