American civil society vibrancy has notably declined over recent decades

Evidence

To those concerned with the weakness of civil societies in the developing or postcommunist world, the advanced Western democracies and above all the United States have typically been taken as models to be emulated. There is striking evidence, however, that the vibrancy of American civil society has notably declined over the past several decades. — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, 6

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to current debates over social capital decline and loneliness epidemics. — connects to: Civic membership declines even as public agitation intensifies in America. — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization…, 22; Different civic activities declined through different generational and society-wide mechanisms — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 915; Declining civic participation weakens officials’ trustworthiness, not just citizens’ trust — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 736 (+5 more)
• corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining…, 6

Related

• American civic engagement rose for two-thirds of the century then sharply reversed. (similarity 0.89)
• Different civic activities declined through different generational and society-wide mechanisms (similarity 0.89)
• Civic engagement vulnerable to free riding declines fastest (similarity 0.85)
• Cooperative civic activities decline faster than individual ones (similarity 0.85)
• Civic organizations across America faded dramatically in the late twentieth century. (similarity 0.85)
• Rising TV viewing correlates with a large decline in civic participation (similarity 0.85)
• Declining civic participation weakens officials’ trustworthiness, not just citizens’ trust (similarity 0.82)
• Political scandals alone cannot explain Americans’ civic withdrawal (similarity 0.82)
• Contradictory local crosscurrents still reveal shared national trends in civic life. (similarity 0.82)
• Americans widely perceived community bonds weakening by the 1990s. (similarity 0.81)
• Generational succession explains roughly half of America’s civic decline since the 1970s (similarity 0.81)
• Robert Putnam — Bowling Alone America’s Declining Social Capital (similarity 0.81)
• Civic engagement traditions precede and enable socioeconomic modernization, not the reverse. (similarity 0.81)
• Generational replacement, not work patterns or media, drove most of the civic decline (similarity 0.80)
• Neither welfare state nor racial backlash explains the civic decline (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Civic membership declines even as public agitation intensifies in America. #corroborates (0.88) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 22
• Americans increasingly consume culture while abandoning participatory social forms #corroborates (0.87) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 376
• Rising TV viewing correlates with a large decline in civic participation #corroborates (0.85) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 448
• Different civic activities declined through different generational and society-wide mechanisms #expands (0.82) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 915
• Cooperative civic activities decline faster than individual ones #qualifies (0.80) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 127
• Declining civic participation weakens officials’ trustworthiness, not just citizens’ trust #expands (0.78) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 736
• Civic engagement vulnerable to free riding declines fastest #qualifies (0.75) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 128