The Dynamics of social capital in traditional and post-traditional communities: the case of Dagestan

This paper focuses on social capital - an important factor in the social and economic development of countries and regions. Studies show that, in general, social capital has a favorable impact on the rate of economic growth, the quality of the institutional environment and the level of accumulated human capital. However, as the experience of research on traditional communities demonstrates, these patterns are more characteristic of developed countries and large cities. Where traditional regulators in society still prevail, a higher level of trust is negatively associated with the level of well-being, which is due to the fact that trust allows to push to comply with the norms and rules that negatively affect their economic behavior. Moreover, a study conducted in three republics of the North Caucasus has demonstrated that traditional communities are characterized by a smaller trust range (due to which social capital is less productive), as well as meaningful differences between more and less modernized social groups. Thus, the process of modernization is associated with the collapse of closed social capital (characteristic of traditional communities), but the formation of modernist values is, in contrast, associated with the accumulation of closed social capital. These findings can be useful in planning policies aimed at accumulating social capital in society.