In his famous essay “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital,” Robert Putnam (who is speaking at an AEI event today), argued that participation in traditional local civic organizations was in decline—but not all agreed with Putnam’s assessment.
Twenty years later, AEI’s Karlyn Bowman examines the polls to determine how Americans feel about their communities. In her latest political report, she finds that regardless of whether people are participating in their communities or not, Americans remain confident in their communities and strongly prefer state and local institutions to federal ones.
The report’s major findings are below:
• Community versus country: A majority (60 percent) of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going in their local community, while only 25 percent say they are satisfied with the way things are going in this country (Pew and Gallup). Other data in this report show that people see more progress in local solutions to problems than federal ones and that young people trust local and state government slightly more than national government (Allstate/National Journal and Harvard Institute of Politics).
• Rating your local area: Seventy-six percent say it is very important for their local area to be a place where all people have equal opportunity to get ahead, making that the quality people identify as wanting the most in their community (Allstate/National Journal). Nearly 70 percent rate the quality of life in their local area as excellent or good (Allstate/National Journal).
To read the full report, click here.
To read Bowman’s op-ed on her findings, click here.
For an interview with Bowman, please contact AEI media services at mediaservices@aei.org or 202.862.5829.
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