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The Institutional Origins of Social Capital: Peasant Organizations in the Dominican Republic
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Abstract
While contemporary social capital theory traces the propensity to form local- level associations to “civic traditions” laid down centuries ago, associational life in the Dominican countryside is in fact the product of the concerted effort of varied actors over the course of at least four decades. The institutional actors that have been the “partners” of local peasant organizations since the end of the Trujillo dictatorship (1961) include the Dominican state, the Catholic church, political parties, transnational non- governmental organizations and even private firms. Each of these organizations has its own definitions, objectives and strategies for rural development. Grassroots organizations in the Dominican countryside arose as the result of political mobilization of the 1960s and 70s. In the 1980s, such activities ceased because of economic crisis, political repression, the transformation of clientelism and the evolution of the development project itself. The overt de-politicization of development processes in the last two decades has served to create precisely the sorts of local organizations that the Putnam/World Bank school of social capital theory espouses. An institutional approach to understanding organizational life allows us to develop a dynamic and fluid model of local social forms. Putnam’s approach, based on cultural scripts and dispositions, emphasizes the stability of such forms and blinds us to other influences on their development and transformation.
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| | Authors: Scholz, Claudia. |
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Abstract
While contemporary social capital theory traces the propensity to form local- level associations to
“civic traditions” laid down centuries ago, associational life in the Dominican countryside is in
fact the product of the concerted effort of varied actors over the course of at least four decades.
The institutional actors that have been the “partners” of local peasant organizations since the end
of the Trujillo dictatorship (1961) include the Dominican state, the Catholic church, political
parties, transnational non- governmental organizations and even private firms. Each of these
organizations has its own definitions, objectives and strategies for rural development. Grassroots
organizations in the Dominican countryside arose as the result of political mobilization of the
1960s and 70s. In the 1980s, such activities ceased because of economic crisis, political
repression, the transformation of clientelism and the evolution of the development project itself.
The overt de-politicization of development processes in the last two decades has served to create
precisely the sorts of local organizations that the Putnam/World Bank school of social capital
theory espouses. An institutional approach to understanding organizational life allows us to
develop a dynamic and fluid model of local social forms. Putnam’s approach, based on cultural
scripts and dispositions, emphasizes the stability of such forms and blinds us to other influences
on their development and transformation.
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