Las relaciones sociales como recurso estratégico para el desarrollo de la sociedad. El capital social disponible en Andalucía y en Cataluña

Social Capital is an informal rule which promotes cooperation between individuals. This reciprocity rule, based on trust, is useful for individuals as well as for society. In fact, social capital has entailed numerous social advantages; it reduces the typical costs of market economies —such as contract, surveillance or punishment— and offers the best guarantee for democracy. Consequently, we consider which kind of relationships can be a strategic resource for society development. To calculate how much social capital is available in an European country or in an European region, I have created a composite index. This index, based on Putnam’s Social Capital Index, consists of 17 social indicators relating to 4 dimensions. Our SCI (Social Capital Index) is an additive index, but is useful also to distinguish between «bridging» and «bonding» social capital. In short, we can calculate the «Social-Gross Domestic Product» and know the relative contribution to S-GDP for «bridging», based on civic relationships, and «bonding», based on friendship and familiar relationships, sub-indices. Therefore, I have estimated the SCI and its sub-indices for two Spanish regions —Andalusia and Catalonia—, for Spain, for the European Union (UE27), Western Europe (UE15) and Eastern Europe (UE27-UE15)According to data, in Europe there are three social capital production systems: the European system, the Eastern European system, and the Spanish system which includes the Andalusian and the Catalan types. Spain (SCI = 4. 08) produces as much social capital as Europe (SCI = 3. 96); however, it produces less civic social capital than Europe. Contrary to Spain, the newest countries of the European Union obtain the lowest index. The Spanish model combines the highest production of social capital with the lowest rate of civic capital. In Spain, and also in Andalusia and Catalonia, primary relationships, such as family relations, produce much more social capital than secondary relationships, such as civic relations. The Andalusian system has more exaggerated «Spanish traits» than the Catalonian one.