Abstract
In this paper we examine how social relations show differential patterns and exert differential effects on accessing social capital in three societies: Taiwan, the United States, and China. Employing data from the position generator, a measure of social capital, we discerned different patterns of social relations in the three societies, such as kin ties, work ties, friends, and other ties. Three possible explanations are posed for assessing possible patterns of social relations and their effects on social capital across the three societies: economic structures (industrialization and marketization), socio-cultural institutions, and political-economic regimes. Our results indicate different patterns of social relations in the three societies. In the U.S., work ties, friends, kin ties, and other ties are distinctive types of social relations. Friends and other ties, rather than work ties or kin ties, exert stronger effects on accessing better social capital. In China, kin ties, friends, and other ties are interrelated, and share effects on accessing social capital. In Taiwan, kin ties, friends, and other ties still overlap but to a lesser extent than they exhibit in China, and the relative effect of kin ties on social capital, while still persisting, has eased up relative to the effects of work ties, friends, and other ties. We suggest that these patterns are more consistent with an economic-structure explanation than a socio-cultural or political-economic regime explanation. In addition to suggesting a slow but persistent process of cultural change, the data also shed light on the nature of guanxi in Chinese societies, and on the prevalence of the social principle of homophily transcending developmental or economic processes.