SOCIAL CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE: An Analysis of 20 American Cities.

The article examines the relationship of variations in social capital to variations in the quality of government performance in the U.S. The two forms of social capital are social trust and fraternal order involvement, which sustain an empirical relationship to government performance across the entire analysis and city demographic characteristics. Current levels of social capital are related to the city's historic political culture and overall quality of life in the city.