Generational succession explains roughly half of America’s civic decline since the 1970s

Evidence

First, pressures of time and money, including the special pressures on two-career families, contributed measurably to the diminution of our social and community involvement during these years. My best guess is that no more than 10 percent of the total decline is attributable to that set of factors. … Second, suburbanization, commuting, and sprawl also played a supporting role. Again, a reasonable estimate is that these factors together might account for perhaps an additional 10 percent of the problem. … Third, the effect of electronic entertainment—above all, television—in privatizing our leisure time has been substantial. My rough estimate is that this factor might account for perhaps 25 percent of the decline. … Fourth and most important, generational change—the slow, steady, and ineluctable replacement of the long civic generation by their less involved children and grandchildren—has been a very powerful factor. The effects of generational succession vary significantly across different measures of civic engagement—greater for more public forms, less for private schmoozing—but as a rough rule of thumb we concluded in chapter 14 that this factor might account for perhaps half of the overall decline. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 981

Categorization

• XREF: Putnam’s quantified causal accounting (10% time pressure + 10% sprawl + 25% TV + ~50% generational succession) is a model for proportionate causal decomposition worth remembering as a method. — connects to: Different civic activities declined through different generational and society-wide mechanisms — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 915; Declining social trust reflects generational succession, not individual change — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 463; Generational effects alter society even when individuals stay the same — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 858 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Declining social trust reflects generational succession, not individual change #expands (0.92) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 463
• Generational replacement drives twice the civic decline television does #corroborates (0.90) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 735
• Generational effects alter society even when individuals stay the same #expands (0.85) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 858
• Nearly all of the turnout decline is generational replacement, not individual change #exemplifies (0.85) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 87