Social Capital and Perception of Democracy in Japan

该项目的目的之一是对以下假设进行实证检验：“公民拥有的社会资本越多，他们参与政治活动的频率就越高。由于社会资本是在日常社会交往（日常对话）中积累起来的，日常社会交往也会促进政治参与。社会资本的数量反过来又影响对政治制度的支持。“为了验证这一点，我们进行了一次全国性的“滚雪球”抽样调查，并得出了以下一组观察结果：-一般来说，团体成员资格增强了公民之间的普遍信任感和互惠感。重要的是，他们积极参与其中。即使是等级团体成员资格，沿着水平团体成员资格也可以促进政治参与。用对网络环境测量更为客观的“雪球”样本进行分析，结果表明网络假说在一定范围内得到了支持。只有配偶的政治活动，而不是其他人，才能影响主要受访者参与政治活动的可能性。这些数据并不支持这样一种说法，即最近日本政治支持率的下降可以归因于日本人社会资本性质的变化。

One of the objectives of this project was to empirically test the following hypothesis:"The larger the amount of social capital that citizens possess, the more frequently they engage in political activities. As the social capital is accumulated in daily social interactions (daily conversation), daily social interaction also enhances political participation. The amount of social capital, in turn, influences support for the political system."To test this we conducted a nationwide "snowball" sample survey, and reached a following set of observations:- Group memberships, in general, enhance a sense of general trust and reciprocity among citizens. It is important, however, that they participate in them actively.- Even hierarchical group membership, along with horizontal group membership can promote political participation.- The analysis with the "snowball" samples which is more objective in its measurement of network environment suggests that the network hypothesis is supported in a limited scope. It is only the political activeness of the spouse, and not of others that can influence the likelihood of the main respondent being involved with political activities.- The data do not support the claim that the recent decline in political support in Japan can be attributed to a changing nature of social capital among Japanese.