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Social capital and the impact of the recent economic crisis: Comparing the effects of economic and fiscal policy developments
Author(s) -
Hörisch Felix,
Obert Peter
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/spol.12590
Subject(s) - social capital , leverage (statistics) , economics , financial crisis , economic system , fiscal policy , reciprocal , capital (architecture) , economic policy , development economics , macroeconomics , political science , history , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , machine learning , computer science , law
Abstract In this contribution, we offer an analysis that evaluates the impact of the recent financial and economic crisis on social capital. An economic crisis offers a unique chance to study people's associational lives, volunteering, network‐making, and trust‐building under duress. Theoretical perspectives on the relationship between social capital and economic development emphasize a reciprocal relationship between the two. Therefore, we hypothesize that if economic performance is compromised, this might lead to an erosion of social capital. More importantly, however, we also argue that states can actively intervene by means of fiscal policy measures. We will illustrate our approach by comparing 29 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries before and after the crisis. Using qualitative comparative analysis, we demonstrate that imperatives related to fiscal policy stimuli provide leverage on social capital development.