Societal Breakdown? Examining the Relationship between Social Cohesion and Incidents of Political Violence

In political science, social cohesion is portrayed as a set of characteristics that enable a group (society, community) to function as a unit and work together to survive and prosper, it is the “glue” that enables society to function well. Although there remains some debate about how best to measure social cohesion, it is generally perceived to include a sense of belonging, a sense of self-worth, a sense of social justice and equity and degrees of political participation. Over the past several years, social cohesion has arguably faced increased pressures from a myriad of factors including the forces of globalization, new migration patterns and changes in how individuals communicate and interact with one another (both domestically and internationally). Additionally, political events around the world have also challenged traditional conceptualizations of nationalism and identity. These factors all affect social cohesion. To date, most studies examining social cohesion have tended to focus on how strong social cohesion can benefit a society. While this is an important inquiry, it neglects to acknowledge that while tangible benefits are created, there are real consequences which arise when social cohesion weakens or deteriorates. Instead of fostering a sense of belonging, commonalities and opportunities for engagement, individuals, groups, communities become isolated and withdrawn creating the potential for increased polarization and fragmentation. Events currently unfolding around the world suggest this is already occurring. Does this reflect a weakening of social cohesion? More importantly does this correlate with greater incidents of negative opinions towards others and more importantly an increase in action based on these negative perceptions such as hate crimes or incidents of domestic terrorism? This paper proposes to examine whether this relationship exists. Whether measures of social cohesion are in fact weakening, how this might relate to values and attitudes towards others in a society and finally whether there has been an increase in actions related to these shifts. Essentially, does weakening social cohesion lead to increased rates of hate crimes and domestic terror incidents? Focusing on select western democratic states, it will examine data from the World Values Survey as well as country specific data to determine whether there is any observable decline in measures related to social cohesion over time. Second it will compare this to data on incidents of hate crimes and domestic terrorism in the same countries over the same time period to determine whether there is any relationship between the two.