Social capital, institutional structures, and democratic performance: A comparative study of German local governments

A great deal of attention has been given recently to the political culture approach in the form of Putnam's argument regarding the importance of social capital in shaping performance in both the political and economic systems. One implication that can be drawn from his study of Italian regional governments is that in the absence of large stocks of social capital, governmental institutions cannot be constructed that would afford superior democratic performance. While entertaining the hypothesis that social capital contributes to government performance, this paper also argues that institutional differences in government forms doplayan important role in shaping the levels of citizen satisfaction with their governments. In particular, it is argued that by minimizing the number of potential veto players within the institutional structure of the government decision making system, performance can be heightened. Drawing mainly on data from two surveys (of elites and citizens) in a large number of German communities conducted during 1995, an assessment of the cultural and institutional hypotheses is carried out. The results suggest that social capital (at least that manifested within local elite political culture) does contribute to better performance. In addition, regardless of the level of social capital that marks a community, governmental performance is enhanced through institutional structures that lower or minimize the number of veto players.