Making or Breaking informal volunteering: Welfare statism and social capital in a sub-national comparative perspective

This article evaluates the relationship between welfare state institutions and informal voluntary activity. In particular, we wish to investigate the extent to which welfare state arrangements influence the individual's decision to volunteer informally. Focusing on informal volunteering - a vital, yet often neglected form of social capital - we reinvestigate the hypotheses on crowding in and crowding out. Our sub-national multilevel analysis of the Swiss cantons reveals that there is no significant effect of welfare statism on informal volunteering. Cantonal differences in individual propensity to volunteer informally can rather be attributed to different cultural-linguistic backgrounds as well as to the cantonal degree of urbanisation.