Active Social Capital

Anirudh Krishna is professor at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University

• 1. Introduction: Can Social Capital Help Support Development and Democracy? 2. How Might Social Capital Matter? 3. Structure and Agency: New Political Entrepreneurs and the Rise of Village-Based Collective Action 4. Measuring Social Capital 5. Understanding Economic Development: Why Do Some Villages Develop Faster than Others? 6. Examining Community Harmony: Why Are Some Villages Peaceful and Others Not? 7. Democratic Participation in Rural North India: Social Capital and New Political Entrepreneurs 8. Conclusion Appendices

Krishna makes commendable use of theory to frame his study and his contribution to testing social capital's key propositions is significant... Krishna's book translates the concept of social capital into a set of practical propositions that have direct relevance for those concerned with improving the welfare of communities... [and is] a helpful resource for those who want to know how to mobilize the strength, cooperative actions and capacities of communities today. -- James Midgley International Journal of Social Welfare Active Social Capital: Tracing the Roots of Development and Democracy is an outstanding piece of scholarship. It deftly and lucidly combines a discussion of the theoretical issues, newly gathered quantitative data, and qualitative case studies to detail the impact that active social capital has on the substantive outcomes attained in the economic, social, and political realms at the village level. -- Amita Shastri Journal of Asian Studies