SOLT, Frederick <br/><br/>
Civics or Structure? :  revisiting the origins of democratic quality in the Italian regions 

 - Cambridge :  Cambridge University Press,  January 2004 
<br/><br/> What determines the responsiveness and effectiveness of governments in meeting their citizens' needs? Based on his 1993 study of the twenty Italian regions, Robert Putnan argued that 'civic community', a self-reinforcing syndrome of social engagement and political participation, is the explanation. A re-examination of Putnan's data reveals little evidence of such a syndrome, but confirms that where more citizens participate in politics outside of networks of clientelistic exchange, more effective democratic government results. To discern the causes of variation in this self-motivated political participation, I test Putnam's measures of social engagement against aspects of Italian socio-economic structure. Economic development and the historical distribution of land, not social engagement, are found to be powerful predictors of self-motivated political participation and in turn democratic quality