Premium
Social Capital and the Family: Evidence that Strong Family Ties Cultivate Civic Virtues
Author(s) -
Ljunge Martin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
economica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.532
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1468-0335
pISSN - 0013-0427
DOI - 10.1111/ecca.12102
Subject(s) - social capital , family values , cheating , democracy , constructive , family ties , interpersonal ties , immigration , sociology , altruism (biology) , language change , social psychology , political science , law , psychology , social science , art , literature , process (computing) , politics , computer science , genealogy , history , operating system
I establish a positive relationship between family ties and civic virtues, as captured by disapproval of tax and benefit cheating, corruption and a range of other dimensions of exploiting others for personal gain. I find that family ties are a complement to social capital, using within‐country evidence from 83 nations and data on second‐generation immigrants in 29 countries. Strong families cultivate Universalist values and produce more civic and altruistic individuals. The results provide a constructive role for families in promoting family values, which challenge an ‘amoral familism’. Moreover, strong families are complementary with more developed and democratic institutions.