Robert D. Putnam

Lore & Background

Robert David Putnam was born on January 9, 1941, in Rochester, New York, and grew up in Port Clinton, Ohio, where he participated in a competitive bowling league as a teenager. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1963, where he was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, and earned a master's degree and doctorate from Yale University in 1970. He taught at the University of Michigan until joining Harvard in 1979, later serving as Dean of the Kennedy School. Putnam was raised Methodist but converted to Judaism in the 1990s, not around the time of his 1963 marriage to Rosemary, a special education teacher and French horn player.

Putnam developed the influential two-level game theory, which assumes that international agreements will only be successfully brokered if they also result in domestic benefits. His first work on social capital was *Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy* (1993), a comparative study arguing that the success of democracies depends on horizontal bonds of social capital. He found that northern Italy's history of community groups led to greater civic involvement and prosperity, while southern Italy's agrarian society had less social capital and poorer outcomes. This finding has been rebutted by a sizable literature noting that civic associations have also been linked to anti-democratic movements.

Putnam's most famous work, *Bowling Alone* (2000), expanded on his 1995 article of the same name. It documented a massive decline in membership in traditional civic, social, and fraternal organizations—typified by bowling leagues—even as the number of people bowling increased. He distinguishes between bonding capital (among similar people) and bridging capital (among dissimilar people), arguing that both strengthen each other and that their decline leads to greater ethnic tensions. Critics, including economist Steven Durlauf and sociologist Claude Fischer, have challenged the book's conceptual clarity, causal claims, and reliance on certain forms of data.

Reader's Guide

Robert D. Putnam's significance lies in his popularization of the concept of social capital and his argument that its decline in the United States since the 1960s has eroded democratic and community life. His work, especially *Bowling Alone*, sparked widespread debate among scholars, policymakers, and the public about the health of American civic engagement. Putnam's two-level game theory also remains influential in international relations, framing how domestic politics constrain international negotiations. However, his findings have faced substantial criticism: economists and sociologists have questioned whether his measures of social capital are coherent, whether his causal claims are justified, and whether he underestimates the 'dark side' of social capital, such as its role in reinforcing conformity and exclusion. Despite these disputes, Putnam's work has had a lasting impact on political science and sociology, making him one of the most cited authors on college syllabi for political science courses. His later book *Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis* (2015) addressed inequality of opportunity, and the 2023 documentary *Join or Die* on Netflix features his ideas about community connections.

Did You Know?

• Putnam ranks around 6th or 7th most frequently cited author on college syllabi for political science courses, according to the Open Syllabus Project.
• He developed the two-level game theory, which holds that international agreements succeed only if they also produce domestic benefits.
• Putnam's 1995 article 'Bowling Alone' led to an invitation to meet with then-President Bill Clinton and a mention in People magazine.
• The 2023 documentary *Join or Die*, based on Putnam's works, is not available on Netflix.