Back
to Data and MethodologyBy Peter Schirmer, Ryan Atkinson and Jeff Carroll
From Civil Society in Kentucky
pp. 11-17, published 1998
Distilled to their essence, social capital is about attitudes and civil society is about activities. By attitudes we mean how people think about other individuals and their communities as a whole. Do they trust others? Take pride in their communities? Feel safe in them? Scholars such as Fukuyama and Putnam focus on attitudes—specifically trust—as the basis for strong civil society. By activities we mean things like volunteering, charitable giving, and organizing a community group. Presumably, trust, civic pride and security will lead people to volunteer, to give to charities, and maybe even to organize a community group.
This chapter first examines Kentuckians’ attitudes and then their activities by using information obtained in the telephone surveys conducted by the University of Kentucky Survey Research Center. When possible, we compare our survey findings to those of national surveys conducted by other organizations.(1) To paint a more elaborate portrait of Kentucky’s civil society, we also consider the effects of sociodemographic variables on attitudes and activities.
Attitudes and Civil SocietyKentuckians generally trust one another, take pride in their communities, feel safe, and believe they can rely on friends and neighbors in times of need:
Figure 1: Trust in Kentucky and the United States
Trust—In the general population telephone survey of Kentuckians, we asked: "Some people say you can usually trust others, and some people say you must be wary of others. Which is closer to your view?"(2) In 1998, 57 percent of the adults surveyed said they usually trust others, compared with 35 percent nationally, according to a 1994 survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center. The results of our survey suggest that trust is independent of age, gender, and place of residence. However, there is a positive correlation between trust and education.(3) People who attend church more frequently, particularly those who attend every week or nearly every week, are also more likely to trust others.(4)
Figure 2: Civic Pride in Kentucky
Civic Pride—The general population telephone survey included a question about civic pride: "How proud are you of your community? Would you say that you are extremely proud, somewhat proud, or not proud at all?" We found that Kentuckians express great pride in their communities. In 1998, 33 percent said they are extremely proud of their communities, 59 percent are somewhat proud, and only 8 percent are not proud at all. Two years earlier, a larger percentage of people—41 percent—said they were extremely proud. Middle-aged people and seniors are more likely to be extremely proud of their communities, as are churchgoers.(5)
Figure 3: Feelings of Safety in Kentucky
Safety—We inquired about feelings of safety with the question, "Do you feel safe in your community always, usually, seldom, or never?" In 1998, 41 percent say they always feel safe in their communities, 52 percent usually feel safe, and 7 percent seldom or never feel safe. Gender appears to be most closely related to feelings of safety—men are somewhat more likely than women to say they always feel safe, but the responses of men and women are not remarkably different.
Reciprocity—Fewer than one person in 10 said he or she has no one other than family to rely on in time of need. The median number of people that Kentuckians say they can rely on for help is 10, and many people say they can rely on dozens of friends and neighbors for help in times of need. How many people a person can rely on is related to a number of factors: church attendance, age, education, gender, and location. But just about everyone can rely on neighbors and friends.
Activity in Civil SocietyFigure 4: The Relationship Between Attitudes and Volunteering
Attitude is one way of examining Kentucky’s civil society; activity is another. The two, of course, are closely related. Clearly a relationship exists between how people feel about others and how they act, but determining cause and effect is difficult. Although Putnam, Fukuyama, and Coleman have written that trust is the basis for civic activity, at least one study has found that the relationship between trust and civic activity is reciprocal and even concluded that the effects of civic activity on trust are stronger than the effects of trust on civic activity.(6) Regardless of the direction of cause and effect, attitudes and activity closely correlate. For example, Figure 4 shows that nearly two thirds of people who tend to trust others are volunteers, versus only half of people who tend to be wary of others. Likewise, 63 percent of people who are "very proud" of their community are volunteers, versus 47 percent who are "not proud at all."
Figure 5: Volunteering in Kentucky and the United States
Volunteering—Kentucky’s volunteer activity is similar to the nation’s, both in terms of the percentage of the population that volunteers and the amount of time volunteers give. Figure 5 compares the results of Kentucky’s surveys, conducted in 1998 and 1996, to those of national surveys conducted in 1994 and 1995 by various organizations. The wording of the questions on the national surveys differed, but not significantly.
Figure 6: Hours Volunteered in an Average Month
Sixty percent of Kentucky’s adults in the 1998 survey had volunteered for community activities in the past year. This figure was up slightly from the 56 percent who had volunteered in 1996. Our state survey found that people with more years of education are more likely to be volunteers.(7) The prime age group for volunteers is 30- to 50-year olds; volunteering is lower in both older and younger age groups. Gender and place of residence have very little effect.
As Figure 5 shows, the percentage of Kentuckians who volunteer is within the range of national estimates. The average volunteer contributes about 12.5 hours per month. This is similar to the findings of a 1994 national survey conducted by the Roper Center. The distributions of hours volunteered in Kentucky and nationwide are almost identical (see Figure 6).
Among the sociodemographic factors, only years of education is related to the number of hours a person volunteers, but not in the way that might be expected: education is negatively correlated with hours volunteered. One possible explanation for the inverse relationship between years of education and hours volunteered is that people who have more education and therefore tend to make more money (earnings and education are strongly positively correlated) contribute more to charity, and people who contribute more to charity tend to volunteer fewer hours than those who do not.(8) In other words, there appears to be a trade-off between charitable contributions and the number of hours a person volunteers.
Figure 7: The Relationship Between Attitudes and Charitable Giving
Charitable Giving—Like volunteering, charitable giving is closely related to trust, civic pride, and feelings of safety. Cause and effect are difficult to distinguish. Charitable giving probably increases as trust and civic pride increase, but it is probably also true that charitable giving can cause trust and pride to increase.
Again, the findings of Kentucky’s survey parallel those of national surveys. Eighty percent of Kentuckians gave to charity in 1998, compared with 73 percent nationally who gave to charity, according to a 1993 survey conducted by the Independent Sector. One difference in the results is the national finding that charitable giving is higher for middle-aged people than for younger or older adults while the Kentucky survey found no such decline for older adults. And as Figure 8 shows, in Kentucky and the rest of the nation, people at all income levels—even the lowest—make charitable contributions.
Figure 8: Charitable Giving in Kentucky and the United States
Community Organizing
—In the 1996 fall telephone survey, we did not directly inquire about volunteering but instead asked, "Have you ever participated with a group of people (e.g. friends, neighbors or co-workers) to work together to solve a problem in your community (such as cleaning up public areas, neighborhood watch programs, etc.)?" If the person had, we then asked, "Were you the organizer or leader of that group effort?" Forty-five percent of adults have participated in a group to solve a problem in their community, and 10 percent helped organize such a group.Like volunteering, participating in a community group is strongly influenced by years of education (more education raises the likelihood of participating), and it is unaffected by place of residence. Participation in a community group is also higher among middle-aged adults than among older or younger people. However, unlike volunteering, participating in a community group is associated with gender: 51 percent of men, compared with only 39 percent of women, say they have participated in a community group to solve a problem.
The two most important factors affecting leadership of a community organization are age and education. Men and women who participated in such groups were equally likely to be leaders.
ConclusionIt appears that Kentucky’s civil society is flourishing. Kentuckians are more trusting than the average American, most express pride in their communities, most usually feel safe, and almost everybody has somebody to rely on for help in times of need. About half of Kentucky’s adults actively participate in volunteer groups or other community organizations, and four out of five contribute to charity. Education appears to be the most important factor related to civil society. Age and gender are weakly correlated with attitudes and activities, and place of residence appears to have almost no effect at all.
In the previous chapter, we explained why we did not look at the relationship between income and attitudes and activities. Still, it merits some discussion. In general, what we can say about years of education we can say about income—more leads to greater participation in civil society. In a way this is good, because people who are more prosperous are giving something back to society. It is also what we would expect to find, since people with high incomes, particularly those who are not in the workforce or work only part-time, have more leisure time to volunteer and participate in community groups, and they obviously have more money. Yet lower rates of participation in civil society by low-income people are a concern. Many community leaders around Kentucky worry that the poor are systematically excluded from opportunities to participate in civil society, and many of the problems that civil society attempts to remedy disproportionately affect low-income people.(9)
Back
to Data and Methodology
Ahead
to Factors Affecting Civil Society