Introduction to Section III

In “Was Tocqueville Wrong?” Clark and Silva explore some strong cases that do not fit the Tocqueville/Putnam approach. Los Angeles (LA) is the major city in the United States where citizens trust other citizens and the government least. What did LA leaders do in seeking to build trust? They followed Tocqueville’s theory and created some 95 neighborhood councils starting in 1999, assuming that citizens would participate more and that it would build confidence. It worked in some neighborhoods, but failed in many others, per evaluations. With large numbers of Mexican immigrants, many LA neighborhoods shared the low trust common in most of Latin America. What to do? We suggest not looking to WASPy New England which did not fit the Latin tradition, but south of the border, for success. One of the most dramatic in Latin America is Bogotá, Colombia, which was deeply transformed by strong mayors, not citizen groups. Mayors Mockus and Penalosa used entertainment and cultural activities to oppose corruption and criminal groups. They mobilized citizen support from above, by using cultural symbols and the media. In a drought, Mayor Mockus broadcast over TV from his bathroom, demonstrating how to take a shower and conserve water. Water consumption dropped dramatically. Corrupt cops were replaced by clown-like mimes, which made the streets look like a circus and cut traffic fatalities. They used the arts, popular culture, consumption, and entertainment activities as a powerful non-Tocquevillian path to build social cohesion and government legitimacy, which they evaluated with citizen surveys. While many cities have sought to encourage local culture and social trust, the dramatic success of Bogota is particularly instructive on how these dynamics can actually work. Adding nuance to these case studies, the authors show how scenes theory suggests alternative paths to legitimacy, expanding from Weber’s three authority types to more. The takeaway is that the path to legitimacy and social trust is broader than just what is proposed by Tocqueville and Putnam. Arts, culture, and consumer amenities can play a critical role.