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 won a Fulbright Fellowship to study at Balliol College, Oxford. He earned a master's degree and doctorate from Yale University in 1970. He taught at the University of Michigan until joining the faculty at Harvard in 1979, where he has held a variety of positions, including Dean of the Kennedy School. Putnam was raised as a religiously observant Methodist; in 1963, he married his wife Rosemary, a special education teacher and French horn player, and later converted to Judaism in the 1970s or 1980s.

Putnam developed the influential two-level game theory, which assumes international agreements will only be successfully brokered if they also result in domestic benefits. His first work in the area of social capital was Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, published in 1993, a comparative study of regional governments in Italy arguing that the success of democracies depends on horizontal bonds that make up social capital. His most famous work, Bowling Alone, published in 2000, argues that the United States has undergone an unprecedented collapse in civic, social, associational, and political life since the 1960s, with serious negative consequences. In March 2015, he published Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, looking at issues of inequality of opportunity in the United States.

Reader's Guide

Putnam's significance lies in his popularization of the concept of social capital and his argument that declining civic engagement—exemplified by the collapse of bowling leagues—harms democratic society. His work has been highly influential, making him the fourth most frequently cited author on college syllabi for political science courses according to the Open Syllabus Project. However, his findings have faced substantial criticism. Economist Steven Durlauf argued that Putnam uses the term social capital inconsistently, fails to provide convincing causal explanations, and underestimates the 'dark side' of social capital, such as conformity and racial segregation. Sociologist Claude Fischer criticized Putnam for concentrating on certain forms of organizations, relying on contradictory data, and underestimating the impact of women's workforce participation. A sizable literature has also rebutted Putnam's claim that social capital has pro-democracy effects, noting that civic associations have been associated with anti-democratic movements. Despite these disputes, Putnam's work has spurred ongoing debate and policy efforts, including the Saguaro Seminar and the 2023 documentary film Join or Die, based on his works.

Did You Know?

• Putnam participated in a competitive bowling league as a teenager in Port Clinton, Ohio.
• He converted to Judaism in the 1970s or 1980s, after his 1963 marriage to his wife Rosemary.
• Putnam is among the most frequently cited authors on college syllabi for political science courses, though specific rankings vary by year and discipline.
• A 2023 documentary film titled Join or Die, available on Netflix, features Putnam and is based on his works.