Social Capital and the Role of Local Government: A Virtuous Cycle between Institution and Culture

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the probability of the theoretical assertion that social capital can be influenced by institutional factors. My analysis will proceed in three steps. First, I will review recent arguments on social capital and draw some general conclusions that the theoretical terminus ad quern about social capital is the recognition of the virtuous cycle between institution and culture. Secondly, I will trace the development processes of Aya town and Mitaka city, regarding them as extremely good cases of Japan for testing the probability of the virtuous cycle in social capital formation. Finally, I will argue that their networks of the autonomous community centers have played crucial roles in sprouting social capital to bring about improvements in their local government performances.