Diversity and Civil Life - Assignment Example

Putman’s report states that diversity may make a group in a community uncomfortable. This discomfort produces deleterious effects such as heightening racial discrimination in the particular community. Beneficial effects include economical, political, and social competition that leads to economic growth. However, the negative effects of diversity are avoidable, especially by the reduction of cases of ethnic and racial intolerance.

Social capital thus leads to harmonious living in diverse communities as people get to appreciate their social ties and more objectively, their political engagements. In cases of social capital depression in a more diverse community, the impacts of ethnic diversity become worse and the population tends to “hunker down” in the communal issues (Michael). This leads to effects such as greater income rates, higher crime rates, and more mobility among the members of the population. These effects lead to both political and social instability in diverse settings and interfere with the normal living of the residents.

Scott Page, The University of Michigan Political Analyst, asserts that the contradicting positive and negative effects of diversity can be contained in a community up to a definite limit. This is substantially applicable as, for instance, a decline in civil understanding would generate to a hostile community, in which the deleterious effects of diversity would be more prevalent. This, therefore, heightens the need to formulate guidelines on controlling the effects of diversity and making it more valuable to the community.