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Civic Association and Democratic Participation in Central America

A Test of the Putnam Thesis

Cornell University

In an attempt to build on and refine Putnam's thesis that participation in associations produces better democracy, this article seeks to determine two things. First, are his findings replicable in Central America? Second, is participation in all forms of associations equally generative of democracy, as Putnam suggests? In this study, Putnam's thesis is tested with survey samples drawn from all of the six Spanish-speaking countries in Central America. The author finds that although participation in community improvement associations is a consistent predictor of democratic behavior at an individual level, participation in other kinds of associations is not.

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