Public affection begins with attachment to the small groups a person belongs to, and extends from there to country and mankind.
Burke wrote in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) that love of the little platoon we belong to in society is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love of our country and of mankind. He set it against the revolutionaries' attempt to build loyalty to abstract principles directly.
In practice
- A national charity finds its most reliable volunteers among people recruited through local clubs and congregations.
- A new employee's loyalty to the company begins as loyalty to her immediate team.
- Possible explanations
- One explanation is that trust is built face to face and then generalised. Another is that small groups give people roles and recognition that large abstractions cannot.
- In its favour
- Consistent with research on social capital and civic participation, including Putnam's, in which membership of local associations predicts wider civic engagement.
- Against it
- Attachment to small groups can also breed exclusion and parochialism, turning platoons against one another, and some research finds that close-knit groups extend less trust to outsiders.
- Standing
- Compare social capital.
- Subject
- Sociology & Culture
- Essay
- How societies hold together, sort people, and change