CAPITAL SOCIAL E QUALIDADE DE VIDA

This article discusses the relationship between political culture and socioeconomic development, making a historical development, establishing the different matrices of the occupational area of Rio Grande do Sul. The central hypothesis takes the classical formulations stating that the higher the stock of social capital the greater will besocioeconomic development, which is why public policy should be structured in order to stimulate it. The methodology uses empirical data that define trust, reciprocity andsolidarity as indicators of social capital that is used as the independent variable of IDESE, an indicator of socioeconomic development. The results indicate the relevanceof Putnam's theory, saying that there is a proportional relationship between social capital and socioeconomic development. Rural citizens have a stock of social capitalabove the city, which allows them to survive against the hostility of agricultural development.