Social capital presents in Italy quite contrasting features. On one side, the country enjoys one of the lowest rates of homicide, suicide and imprisoned people in the world. We have already observed that the health of its people is among the best in the world, with life expectancy among the highest; moreover, Italy records a low level of alcohol consumption (the lowest in Europe), good and varied food (the famous “Mediterranean diet”), limited obesity, widespread home ownership, many opportunities for socially-based entertainment and leisure time; and a strong network of associations and NGOs. On the other side, the country has a very high level of corruption, high tax evasion and the widespread existence of organized crime. Let us begin with social and civic capital and its measurement.

SOCIAL AND CIVIC CAPITAL

The concepts of “social capital” and “civic virtues” as foundations for the economic flourishing of communities go back to the Italian city-states of the Middle Ages, when economic activity was justified by theologians if it aimed at the “common good” (“fare ricca la città” – to enrich the city) and they continued to be elaborated until a much narrower vision of economics prevailed in the nineteenth century in the Anglo-Saxon countries. Since then utilitarianism and self-interest have formed the basis of economic theory, but in Italy economic practice has maintained contact with some of the social roots of that original thinking. The reproposition of social capital as an important determinant of positive economic performance came firstly from the work of sociologists in the 1980s and 1990s (especially Pierre Bourdieu and Robert Putnam). Social capital was defined as the set of factors enabling people to act together effectively in pursuing shared aims and it was based on relationships of trust. There was also an effort to articulate social capital according to its different coverage in society: bonding, when trust and common endeavour is limited to family ties; bridging, when it is centred on local connections; linking, when the extension of connections is unlimited. Bonding social capital, generally, has been viewed negatively, because it can lock groups into sects or clans, and activate conflicts among groups and between groups and the rest of society. Indeed, mafia groups contain bonding social capital, which can hardly be considered valuable social capital.