Social Capital and Political Efficacy: A Review of Theories and Applications in the Context of Cambodian Youth

Abstract

This review aims to describe the relation between social capital and political efficacy within the youth of Cambodia by suggesting the possible integration of the sociological, political, and development theories vis-a-vis Cambodia, and the possible applications that pertain to the suggestion of such integration. In this case, it is suggested that the social infrastructures of civic capital: bonding, bridging, and linking through five families of mechanisms that are social learning, information flows, norms and sense of belonging, trust and reciprocity, and the reduction of participation costs, build political efficacy, albeit in very different ways. The review aims to propose a Cambodia-specific pathway model wherein the internal political efficacy or self-belief confidence is sustaining and more community oriented through the schools, universities, families, peers and community learning structures, and the external political efficacy or belief of self-responsibility is more institution oriented, and more variant on the availability of linking social capital and the presence of the institutional feedback mechanisms. In this review, a hypothesized outcome is illustrated: youth have the potential to be politically active and engage in risk-committed actions. This calls for a research agenda that seeks to study theoretical pathways, context-specific metrics, moderator sensitive mechanisms, integrated qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and temporally extended methodologies.