Scandinavian ancestry predicts a state’s current social capital.

Evidence

Well-trod paths of migration helped establish regional and local patterns of social capital in contemporary America. These interstate differences are astonishingly similar to differences in “state political culture” as drawn from the 1950s by political historian Daniel Elazar, who traced them in turn to patterns of nineteenth-century immigration. One surprisingly strong predictor of the degree of social capital in any state in the 1990s is, for example, the fraction of its population that is of Scandinavian stock. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1027

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why specifically Scandinavian stock — was it the organizational/cooperative culture immigrants brought, or something about the migration pathway itself? Worth chasing the Elazar literature.
• XREF: connects to: Social capital grows from participation, not prior endowment alone. — Adelin-Costin Dumitru, Forging the Resistive Republic: Social…, 49; Adult-to-child ratio measures family social capital available for schooling. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 170; Social trust is an outcome and byproduct of social capital — Adelin-Costin Dumitru, Forging the Resistive Republic: Social…, 41 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Social trust is an outcome and byproduct of social capital #expands (0.78) — Adelin-Costin Dumitru, Forging the Resistive Republic, 41
• Social capital grows from participation, not prior endowment alone. #qualifies (0.75) — Adelin-Costin Dumitru, Forging the Resistive Republic, 49
• Adult-to-child ratio measures family social capital available for schooling. #expands (0.72) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 170