1 (Forthcoming 2001). ACivil Society and Social Capital: A Primer,@ by Bob Edwards and Michael W. Foley, in Beyond Tocqueville: Civil Society and the Social Capital Debate in Comparative Perspective , Bob Edwards, Michael W. Foley, and Mario Diani, Eds. University Press of New England Series on Civil Society. Civil Society and Social Capital: A Primer Bob Edwards, East Carolina University Michael W. Foley, The Catholic University of America INTRODUCTION Recent debate about the role of civil society in democratic governance around the world and the "decline of social capital" in the United States has raised a variety of theoretical and empirical questions about the character of contemporary societies and the social and institutional bases for sound and dynamic democracies. This debate has reached a wide audience in North America and Europe not limited to academia. The predominant refrain in the debate, following Alexis de Tocqueville's 160 year old analysis of democracy in America, attaches tremendous significance to the role of voluntary associations in society. Participation in such groups is said to produce social capital, sometimes linked to high levels of social trust. Social capital in turn is conceived as a crucial national resource for promoting collective action for the common good. The concept of social capital has gained increasing popularity among political sociologists and political scientists since being introduced by Pierre Bourdieu and James Coleman in the 1980s. i Robert Putnam's work on Italy (1993) and his provocative claim that social capital is somehow in decline in the United States (1995a, 1995b) stimulated a flurry of research and writing, including efforts to apply the notion of social capital in disciplines as disparate as criminology, epidemiology and economics, not to mention sociology and political science. The World Bank has recently institutionalized the concept in its evaluation criteria by requiring social capital assessments for current and future projects. In the United States, major foundations like Ford and the Pew Charitable Trusts have implemented social capital related funding criteria. While the concepts of civil society and social capital have raised important questions about the dynamics of social life, the sources of citizen involvement in political life, and the role of trust in facilitating social action, both notions have proven difficult to define and apply in a coherent manner. At the same time, and as a result of their very success, these terms have been stretched conceptually, at the risk of hampering, rather than facilitating, our understanding of the social and political processes they were meant to illuminate. Without pretending to definitively resolve these concerns, this volume is intended to help clarify the issues at stake and illustrate the rich empirical work that has followed on the debate. THE MANY CIVIL SOCIETIES