Evidence from the General Social
Survey demonstrates, at all levels
of education and among both
men and women, a drop of
roughly one-quarter in group
membership since 1974 and a
drop of roughly one-third in social
trust since 1972.6 Moreover,
as Figure I illustrates, slumping
membership has afflicted all sorts
of groups, from sports clubs and
professional associations to literary
discussion groups and labor
unions.7 Only nationality groups,
hobby and garden clubs, and the
catch-all category of "other"
seem to have resisted the ebbing
tide. Furthermore, Gallup polls
report that church attendance fell
by roughly 15% during the 1960s
and has remained at that lower
level ever since, while data from
the National Opinion Research
Center suggest that the decline
continued during the 1970s and
1980s and by now amounts to
roughly 30% (Putnam 1996).