Social Capital in Azerbaijan

Does It Help to Build Democracy?

Author(s): Anar Valiyev
Editor(s): Iris Kempe, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Lili Di Puppo
Series: Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)
Issue: 31
Pages: 11-13
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Resource Security Institute (RSI), Arlington; Heinrich Böll Foundation, Tbilisi; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Publication Year: 2011

This article provides an overview of social capital in Azerbaijan. Conceptualizing social capital as trust and networking, the article examines popular levels of trust toward various governmental institutions. The author claims that bonding social capital is prevalent in the country while there is relatively little bridging capital. The absence of this bridging social capital both hinders the development of grass-root democracy and decreases voter turnout in municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections.

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