Since the publication of Robert Putnam's (1993) seminal study of civic traditions in Italy, the norms and networks of civic life have been a subject of extensive research from a variety of disciplinary perspectives (Hooghe and Stolle 2003; Mishler and Rose 2001, 2005; Newton 2001; Putnam 1993, 2000; van Deth 2007; Warren 1999; Zmerli and Newton 2008). From this research a general consensus has emerged that interpersonal trust and tolerance constitute the key civic norms shaping the quality of public life and the performance of both political and social institutions. Among the scholars who have followed Alexis de Tocqueville's lead in the study of American civic norms and associational activism, there is a growing recognition that no society or polity can survive and thrive for an extended period of time without a trusting and tolerating public (Sander and Putnam 2010, 9; Sharma 2008).

Specifically, trust generalized to strangers has been found to promote the quality of communal life by leading people to cooperate and compromise, to play an active role in their community, and to behave morally (Putnam 1993). It has also been found to facilitate economic development by reducing “transaction costs” in markets (Fukuyama 1995a). Meanwhile, interpersonal tolerance has been understood to improve the quality of democratic government by allowing for a variety of policy alternatives and admitting their criticism (Badescu and Uslaner 2003; Uslaner 2002). In short, interpersonal trust and tolerance are widely recognized in the extant literature on civil society and political culture as the two essential civic norms promoting social cooperation and democratic governance (Jackman and Miller 1998; Theiss-Morse and Hibbing 2005).