Social Capital

America Social-Capital Problem Is America’s Political Problem
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/448633/americans-are-becoming-more-politically-active-less-well-informed Excerpt: There was a remarkable detail, scarcely commented upon, in the executive summary of the debut report from Senator Mike Lee’s Social Capital Project. In 1972, 36 percent of Americans reported that they followed “what’s going on in government and public affairs,” while 32 percent said that they had tried to persuade someone else to vote a particular way. By 2008, the share of Americans who followed public affairs had dropped almost a third, to 26 percent. Yet, remarkably, the share of Americans who had tried to persuade someone else to vote a particular way had increased about a quarter, to 40 percent. Even under the very most charitable assumption — that everyone who considers himself well-informed is politically active — some 35 percent of the politically active are, by their own reporting, not politically well-informed. What’s going on?