Papers by Francisco Herreros
Supplemental material, Online_Appendix_(final_version) for Education and trust: A tale of three c... more Supplemental material, Online_Appendix_(final_version) for Education and trust: A tale of three continents by Cecilia Güemes and Francisco Herreros in International Political Science Review
Claves de razón práctica, 2007
... Ciudadanía y democracia. Autores: Francisco Herreros; Localización: Claves de razón práctica,... more ... Ciudadanía y democracia. Autores: Francisco Herreros; Localización: Claves de razón práctica, ISSN 1130-3689, Nº 175, 2007 , págs. 76-79. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. Acceso de usuarios registrados Usuario. Contraseña. Entrar. Mi Dialnet. ...
This article claims that the role of pre-war grievances as a predictor of violence against civili... more This article claims that the role of pre-war grievances as a predictor of violence against civilians in civil wars may have been systematically underestimated because the “grievance hypothesis” has not been properly tested. Pre-war grievances can only affect civilian victimization in civil wars if they have been intensely mobilized in the period close to the outbreak of the conflict and if there is a temporary collapse of state capacity. This article presents a “fair test” of the grievance hypothesis. It analyses in depth a specific case of a pre-war grievance that met these two conditions. This case is the conflict around land property rights in Catalonia before the Spanish Civil War and its effects on violence against civilians during the war. The results show a non-negligible effect of pre-war grievances on civilian victimization
We analyze the impact of failed land reform on peasant conflict in Spain before the Civil War usi... more We analyze the impact of failed land reform on peasant conflict in Spain before the Civil War using a municipal data set with monthly observations of peasant conflict in Andalusia from April 1931 to July 1936. We find temporary occupations of land were rare and not correlated with either organized reaction to land reform or the existence of a large pool of beneficiaries. Potential beneficiaries of reform struck more often in the period of land reform deployment, especially in towns with a legacy of domination by a noble family and no previous experience of reform. There is some evidence that actual land reform implementation reduced strikes, most prominently in towns that had not been affected by land reform until the 1930s. We argue both sets of evidence suggest that faster re-distribution would have reduced conflict and that the effects of incomplete land reform were stronger in towns with no previous history of land reform.
La confianza es una expectativa acerca de las preferencias de otro agente, el depositario de esa ... more La confianza es una expectativa acerca de las preferencias de otro agente, el depositario de esa confianza. Se puede definir, en líneas generales, como la expectativa de que aquel en el que hemos depositado nuestra confianza haga honor a ella: que devuelva el dinero que le hemos prestado, que tenga en cuenta nuestras preferencias en el cumplimiento de una tarea en la que nos hemos embarcado juntos o, en general, que no nos engañe. La confianza, como se puede apreciar, es una relación tripartita: A confía en que B hará X. Esta definición se aplica fundamentalmente a las relaciones interpersonales. ¿Se puede definir de la misma manera la confianza política? De acuerdo con -cuya definición de confianza como «interés encapsulado» (que supone que A confía en B porque asume que está en el interés de B actuar de acuerdo con los intereses de A) es una de las más influyentes de la literatura-, no. O, al menos, no en ese sentido de «interés encapsulado», es decir, asumiendo que la institución en cuestión tiene un interés especial en incluir el interés del ciudadano en el suyo. Normalmente, ese «interés encapsulado» se basa en la existencia de incentivos exógenos para la cooperación y la reciprocidad como, por ejemplo, que la relación entre los individuos sea duradera, lo que hace que ambos tengan incentivos para cooperar (siempre que no sean muy miopes), o que exista un tercer agente que garantice el cumplimiento de los acuerdos (por ejemplo, mediante sanciones a los que no cumplan).
Rationality and Society
There have been two main arguments concerning the effects of family relationships on social trust... more There have been two main arguments concerning the effects of family relationships on social trust. The first claims that the intensity of the family relationship reduces the capacity of the family members to interact in the outside world, where social uncertainty prevails. The second considers that trust inside the family spills over into trust in strangers. There is a corollary to the first argument: intense family relationships, by reducing social trust, affect community development negatively. In this article I show, first, that it is the intensity of family relationships, and not trust in the family, that negatively affects social trust. Second, that there is an interaction effect between trust in the family and state efficacy on social trust. While high trust in the family and low trust in strangers can go together, the relationship is spurious. It is low state efficacy that causes low trust in strangers and, to a lesser extent, high in-family trust. These arguments are tested with a sample of 44 countries from the 2005 wave of World Value Survey.
This article reports the results of an online experiment conducted in two ethnically fragmented s... more This article reports the results of an online experiment conducted in two ethnically fragmented societies in Spain: the
Basque Country and Catalonia. It tests the effect of co-ethnicity on trust and reciprocity. Ethnicity was manipulated
in the experimental context using three ethnic attributes: ancestors’ origin, language and name. Additionally, the
article reports a comparison of general levels of trust in the two regions. No co-ethnicity effect on trust is found, but
there is significantly more reciprocal behaviour between Catalan speakers in Catalonia. Higher levels of trust and
reciprocity are found in the more homogeneous society of the Basque Country. The lack of co-ethnicity effect on
trust is especially significant given that the Basque Country has experienced decades of terrorism along ethnic lines.
Rationality and Society (2012)
Most analyses of the relationship between state institutions and interpersonal trust claim either... more Most analyses of the relationship between state institutions and interpersonal trust claim either that the state crowds out trust or that it helps to create trust, acting as a third-party enforcer of agreements. Actually, the relationship between the state and trust is much more complex. This article presents a theoretical model that predicts how trust will evolve in highly efficacious and low-efficacious states. Based on priors about other people's trustworthiness determined by educational level, the model claims that in low-efficacious states, trust will tend to collapse and education will not have an effect on trust levels. However, as state efficacy grows, education level will explain variations in trust levels. The theoretical predictions are to a great extent confirmed by a multilevel analysis of 47 countries.
This article analyzes the determinants of the variation in the levels of lethal violence against ... more This article analyzes the determinants of the variation in the levels of lethal violence against civilians during a civil war. It departs from the usual explanations of this variation, advancing two different logics to account for civilians' victimization: strategic violence directed to avoid rebellions by targeting would-be political entrepreneurs and violence as a consequence of the breakdown of the state's authority. It uses a new data set on violence against civilians during the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939.
This article analyzes whether state repression in post-civil war situations can be explained by d... more This article analyzes whether state repression in post-civil war situations can be explained by dynamics associated with previous civil wars. It claims that in post-civil war situations the state can more easily resort to indiscriminate repression against social groups, relying on information related to the civil war. Two civil war dynamics are tested: preemptive indiscriminate violence to eliminate opposition by the defeated population and retaliation for crimes committed during the war. Using data from the first decade of the Francoist regime in Spain, the author found that civil war dynamics, and not actual dissent, explain most of the country's postwar violence.
The role of the state in the promotion of social or generalized trust is one of the most importan... more The role of the state in the promotion of social or generalized trust is one of the most important ongoing topics in social capital research. We suggest that the state can play a positive role in the creation of social trust as a third-party enforcer of private agreements. This positive effect depends on the effi cacy of the state. We also argue that the effects of the state on social trust will be unevenly distributed among majoritarian and minoritarian ethnic groups. These hypotheses are tested using the European Social Survey (2002-03) and confi rmed for a dataset of 22 European countries.
En la ciencia política actual, las elecciones son consideradas normalmente como mecanismos de con... more En la ciencia política actual, las elecciones son consideradas normalmente como mecanismos de control de los políticos. El argumento de este artículo es que la tradición republicana, la tradición de autores desde Cicerón hasta los revolucionarios americanos, pasando, entre otros, por Maquiavelo y Harrington, consideraba más bien las elecciones como un mecanismo para seleccionar "buenos tipos", lo que esos autores denominaban en ocasiones la "aristocracia natural". Tanto en su forma de interpretar las elecciones como en los mecanismos que presentaban para explicar cómo el pueblo podía seleccionar a los políticos más virtuosos, los republicanos avanzaban algunas de las ideas presentadas recientemente por algunos autores que consideran que las elecciones son mecanismos de selección más que de control.
Resumen: La confianza social, o confianza generalizada, es un concepto clave para la investigació... more Resumen: La confianza social, o confianza generalizada, es un concepto clave para la investigación sobre capital social. Se define como confianza en desconocidos acerca de los que se carece de información. En el artículo se argumenta que puede ser creada como subproducto de la participación en asociaciones, a través de tres vías: la consideración de los miembros como una muestra representativa de la sociedad, la transformación de preferencias en un sentido virtuoso y los efectos del tipo de red social al que se pertenece sobre costos, beneficios y creencias que influyen en la decisión de confiar. Finalmente, se presenta un modelo estratégico de creación de confianza social mediante señales.
Desde su aparición hace ahora más de dos décadas, el capital social ha sido postulado como una de... more Desde su aparición hace ahora más de dos décadas, el capital social ha sido postulado como una de las soluciones más prometedoras a los males de la democracia. Son varias las vías a través de las cuales se ha argumentado que mayores reservas de capital social ...
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Papers by Francisco Herreros
Basque Country and Catalonia. It tests the effect of co-ethnicity on trust and reciprocity. Ethnicity was manipulated
in the experimental context using three ethnic attributes: ancestors’ origin, language and name. Additionally, the
article reports a comparison of general levels of trust in the two regions. No co-ethnicity effect on trust is found, but
there is significantly more reciprocal behaviour between Catalan speakers in Catalonia. Higher levels of trust and
reciprocity are found in the more homogeneous society of the Basque Country. The lack of co-ethnicity effect on
trust is especially significant given that the Basque Country has experienced decades of terrorism along ethnic lines.
Basque Country and Catalonia. It tests the effect of co-ethnicity on trust and reciprocity. Ethnicity was manipulated
in the experimental context using three ethnic attributes: ancestors’ origin, language and name. Additionally, the
article reports a comparison of general levels of trust in the two regions. No co-ethnicity effect on trust is found, but
there is significantly more reciprocal behaviour between Catalan speakers in Catalonia. Higher levels of trust and
reciprocity are found in the more homogeneous society of the Basque Country. The lack of co-ethnicity effect on
trust is especially significant given that the Basque Country has experienced decades of terrorism along ethnic lines.
"Herreros, far more than anyone else to date, gives the concept social capital both theoretical and empirical standing. He clarifies the questions that matter, shows how we can answer them, and even answers some. This is a truly cross-national study, informed by sophisticated analytics and imaginative tests of plausible hypotheses. His most important finding is that the state fosters social capital directly through its efficacy in enforcing agreements and indirectly through its subsidies of associations. Herreros thus counters many earlier analyses of social capital and provides the basis for further theoretical and policy advance."--Margaret Levi, Jere L. Bacharach Professor of International Studies, University of Washington
"Herreros's Problem of Forming Social Capital is a well-argued analysis of the importance of trust and voluntary associations in civic life. His argument is not mine, but this is an engaging book that will make an important contribution to debates on social capital. More so than almost anyone else, Herreros presents a clear argument about the underlying mechanisms of social capital. His reasoning will play a key role in the ongoing controversy about how and whether trust and membership in civic associations make democracy work better."--Eric Uslaner, University of Maryland, College Park
"This is a brilliant book. The arguments are rigorous and sharp; the evidence, convincing; the style, incisive and witty. Herreros departs from the mainstream literature on social capital showing, first, that social trust can be explained from a rational choice perspective; and second, that the State can generate social capital. Both on theoretical and empirical grounds, the book is a major contribution to the study of social capital; it is also enjoyable to read."--José María Maravall, Juan March Institute, Madrid
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En este libro se presenta una visión revisada del materialismo histórico en el que la transformación de los modos de producción es el producto de la conjunción de dos variables: el cambio tecnológico y los conflictos políticos. Este materialismo histórico "débil" (por menos explicativo) pierde el carácter determinista y rebaja la primacía del desarrollo de las fuerzas productivas como variable explicativa. La plausibilidad de esta versión de la teoría de la historia de Karl Marx es ilustrada con una aplicación a los procesos de transición de la Antigüedad al feudalismo y del feudalismo al capitalismo en Europa Occidental, el fracaso del desarrollo del capitalismo en China hasta el siglo XIX y la caída de las economías del "socialismo real" en el siglo XX.