THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL CAPITAL AND DEMOCRACY (2010/2020)

Social capital theory has been tested in recent decades, producing robust evidence in academia that the characteristics of civil society greatly affect the quality of democracy, the robustness of communities and people's spirit of civic participation. In the wake of these works, this study investigates to what extent the decrease in social capital has impacted confidence in democracy in the period from 2010 to 2020. This work is a survey, quantitative research, using the database originating from the Global Survey of Values (World Values Survey/ WVS) through standard questionnaires presented on a global scale. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics with frequency tables using SPSS V24 software, calculating percentages and crosses. The results indicated that there is an association between social capital and democracy and at the same time a certain decline in social capital indicators that directly affects the belief in democracy. It is concluded that this scenario is worrying, as it may suggest a threat to democratic values, fundamental freedoms and institutional procedures, characterizing an inertial democracy in the country.