Voluntary Associations and Tolerance: An Ambiguous Relationship

Abstract

In the debate on social capital, it is usually assumed that membership in voluntary associations is highly beneficial for the formation of civic values among the association's affiliates. Despite these theoretical expectations, comparative studies have so far found only a weak statistical relationship between associational involvement and tolerance in Western democracies and a nonsignificant or even negative relationship in the case of Eastern and Central European countries. In this article, the author further investigates the negative relationship between associational involvement and attitudes of social and political tolerance, the "dark side" of social capital. The author shows that when members of voluntary associations build particularized trust rather than generalized trust, this decreases their already low levels of social tolerance. Such situations are especially common in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Associational involvement also has negative effects on political tolerance. Associations are social contexts within which processes of interpersonal influence and political mobilization take place. This results in the reinforcement of civic as well as uncivic orientations of associational members.

The Influence of World Societal Forces on Social Tolerance. A Time Comparative Study of Prejudices in 32 Countries

“…At a very basic level, more institutions equal more members and more possible contacts to adherents and activists. This idea supports the explanation brought forward within the social capital literature that membership alone has an effect on social tolerance (Iglic 2010). In the theory part, however, more specific processes, such as political actors deliberately seeking out international organizations (Tsutsui and Shin 2008) and leaders within organizations imposing goals on employees (Hallet 2010), were mentioned.…”

“…Tsutsui and Shin (2008) discuss how local human rights activists deliberately appeal to international organizations to pressure governments. Related, Iglic (2010) discusses within a social capital framework that simple involvement in organizations can increase the exposure to different ideas and, consequently, promote social tolerance.…”

Schools or Pools of Democracy? A Longitudinal Test of the Relation Between Civic Participation and Political Socialization

“…Even if the bulk of the correlations between associational involvement and political attitudes and activities can be attributed to selection effects, subsequent socialization effects may still occur (Hooghe 2003;Iglic 2010;Quintelier 2013). …”

Intolerance Toward Immigrants in Switzerland: Diminished Threat Through Social Contacts?

“…How these processes may affect tolerance is not entirely certain: While they do lead to cultural and ethnical diversity, different ethical perspectives and values are placed in competition with each other, thereby increasing the demand for tolerance. The literature on tolerance and intolerance formation has placed threat at the center of its discourse (Gibson , 569; Iglic, , 718; Sniderman et al., ; Stouffer, ; Sullivan et al., ). Sullivan et al.…”