Abstract
Tarrow initially provides a synopsis of Putnam’s widely heralded Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (1993 and with Leonardi and Nanetti). He is encouraging about Putnam’s early narrower project (see Putnam with Leonardi and Nanetti 1988), which shows how a 1970s central political reform was realized quite differently in the distinctive political cultures of northern and southern Italy. Tarrow agrees that this part of Putnam’s study demonstrates that distinctive political cultures are apt to shape initially similar institutions quite differently over time. So in this regard culture shapes political institutions. However, Putnam extended the initial scope of his analysis to inquire into the origins of these distinctive regional cultures, concluding that these regional peculiarities are long-standing, stemming from differences in civic republicanism (social capital or civil society) in the late medieval period that persist into the present. Thus, once again, Putnam portrays culture as shaping political institutions: Civic republicanism produces more thorough democracy. Tarrow disagrees with the causal flow Putnam suggests in his expanded project. Tarrow argues instead that, across this lengthy period, institutional differences shaped distinctive political cultures. Tarrow also thinks that Putnam’s operationalization of democracy has limitations, and we might add that Putnam’s indices of culture lack a theoretical superstructure.
The author wishes to espress his gratitude to David Blackrner, Mauro Calise, Miriam Golden, Stephen Hellman, David Laitin, Peter Lange, Joseph LaPalombra, Jonas Pontusson, Robert Putnam, Carlo Trig-ilia, and Alan Zuckerman, as well as two anonymous reviewers, for their unusually helpful comments on this chapter.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Agulhon, M. 1982. The republic in the village: The people of the Var from the French Revolution to the Second Republic. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bagnasco, A. 1994. Regioni, tradizione civica, modernizzazi-one italiana: Un commento alla ricerca di Putnam. Stato e mercato 40 (April): 93–104.
Bagnasco, A. 1995. Regions, civic tradition and Italian modernization. APSA-CP (Newsletter of the APSA Organized Section in Comparative Politics) 6 (Summer): 4–5.
Banfield, E. C. 1958. The moral basis of a backward society. Chicago: Free Press.
Bizzocchi, R. 1987. Chiesa e potere nella Toscana del Quattrocento. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Cohn, S. K., Jr. 1994. La storia secondo Robert Putnam. Polis 8 (August): 315–324.
della Porta, D. 1992. Lo scarnbio occulto. Casi di corruzione politica in Italia. Bologna: II Mulino.
Feltrin, Paolo. 1994. Review of La tradizione civica nelle regioni italiane. Rivista italiana di scienza politica 24 (April): 169–172.
Fried, R. 1963. The Italian prefects: A study in administrative politics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Goldberg, E. 1996. Thinking about how democracy works. Politics and Society 4 (March): 7–18.
King, G., R. Keohane, and S. Verba, 1994. Designing social inquiry: Scientific inquiry in qualitative research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Laitin, D. 1994. The civic culture at thirty. American Political Science Review 89 (March): 168–173.
LaPalombara, J. 1965. Italy: Fragmentation, isolation, alienation. In Political culture and political development, edited by L. W. Pye and S. Verba. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
LaPalombara, J. 1993. Review of Making Democracy Work. Political Science Quarterly 108(3): 549–550.
Leonardi, R., and R. Y. Nanetti, eds. 1990. The regions and European integration: The case of Emila-Romagna. New York: Pinter.
Levi, M. 1996. Social and unsocial capital. Politics and Society 24 (March): 45–55.
Lipset, S. M. 1995. Malaise and resiliency in America. Journal of Democracy 6(3): 2–16.
Lowi, T. J. 1985. The state in politics: The relation between policy and administration. In Regulatory Policy and the Social Sciences, edited by R. G. Noll. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Molho, A. 1994. Marriage alliances in late medieval Florence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Mutti, A. 1995. Paths of development. APSA-CP (Newsletter of the APSA organized Section in Comparative Politics) 6 (Summer): 6–8.
Nanetti, R. Y. 1988. Growth and territorial policies: The Italian model of social capitalism. New York: Pinter.
Pasquino, G. 1994. La politica eclissata dalia ttadizione civica. Polis 8 (August): 307–313.
Pasquino, G. 1995. The politics of civic tradition eclipsed. APSA-CP (Newsletter of the APSA Organized Section in Comparative Politics) 6 (Summer): 8–9.
Pizzorno, A. 1971. Amoral familism and historical marginality. In European politics: A reader, edited by M. Dogan and R. Rose. Boston: Little, Brown.
Putnam, R. D., with R. Leonardi and R. Y. Nanetti. 1993a. Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Putnam, R. D. 1993b. The prosperous community. American Prospect 13 (Spring): 35–42.
Putnam, R. D. 1994. Lo storico e l’attivista. Polis 8 (August): 325–328.
Putnam, R. D. 1995. Bowling alone: America’s declining social capital. Journal of Democracy 6(1): 65–78.
Putnam, R. D., R. Leonardi, and R. Y. Nanetti. 1981. Devolution as a political process: The case of Italy. Publius 11(1): 95–117.
Putnam, R. D., R. Leonardi, and R. Y. Nanetti. 1985. La pianta e le radici: II radicamento dell’istituto regionale nel sisterna politico italiano. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Putnam, R. D, R. Leonardi, R. Y. Nanetti, and F. Pavoncello. 1983. Explaining institutional success: The case of Italian regional government. American Political Science Review 77 (March): 55–74.
Ramella, F. 1995. Mezzogiorno e societa civile: Ancora l’epoca del familismo? Il Mulino 44 (May–June): 471–480.
Review symposium, the qualitative-quantitative disputation: Gary King, Robert 0. Keohane, and Sidney Verba’s Designing Social Inquiry. American Political Science Review 89 (July): 45–81
Sabetti, F. 1996. Path dependency and civic culture: Some lessons from Italy about interpreting social experiments. Politics and Society 24 (March): 19–44.
Salvemini, G. 1955. Scritti sulla questione meridionale, 1896–1955. Turin: Einaudi.
Tarrow, S. 1967a. Peasant communism in southern Italy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Tarrow, S. 1967b. Political dualism and Italian communism. American Political Science Review 61 (March): 39–53.
Tarrow, S. 1995. Bridging the quantitative-qualitative divide in political science. American Political Science Review 89 (June): 471–474.
Trigilia, C. 1986. Grandi partiti e piccole irnprese. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Trigilia, C. 1992. Sviluppo senza autonomia. Effetti perversi delle politiche nel Mezzogiorno. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Trigilia, C. 1994. Dai comuni medievali alle nostre regioni. L’indice, No. 3 (March): 36.
Trigilia, C., ed. 1995. Cultura e sviluppo. L’associazionismo nel mezzogiorno. Rome: Donzelli.
Ventura, A. 1964. Nobilta epopolo nella societa veneta del’ 400 e’ 500. Bari: Laterza.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2000 Lane Crothers and Charles Lockhart
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tarrow, S. (2000). Making Social Science Work Across Space and Time: A Critical Reflection on Robert Putnam’s Making Democracy Work. In: Crothers, L., Lockhart, C. (eds) Culture and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62965-7_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62965-7_13
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-0-312-23300-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-62965-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)