Research on civic culture and social capital in Italy has supplied discordant results. Both have traditionally been thought of as low. More recently some data has confirmed this view, though others question it. The article deals with one aspect of this subject, the construction of social capital, and in particular the ways in which politics can make a contribution. The idea that is presented is that civic culture (institutional social capital) is the result of processes to which politics can contribute if power is used as a resource to generate additional utility – i.e. public goods. The final part analyses the role played by politics in Italy in the period of the so-called Second Republic.only subscribers can see the full article