Social capital is today one of the most compelling concepts in understanding the political democratization and socioeconomic well-being. This paper examines the characters and contents of social capital and identifies the relatinship of social capital ...

Social capital is today one of the most compelling concepts in understanding the political democratization and socioeconomic well-being. This paper examines the characters and contents of social capital and identifies the relatinship of social capital to quality of life among ordinary Koreans by utilizing a national sample survey data. The rate of social organization membership in Korea is cery low, the lowest level in world standard. Nevertheless, those who are middle class having college education in the age of thirties, so called '386 generation' show the most active civic engagement. Also this paper empirically verifies that while the public trust is very weak, the private trust is very strong. The quality of life measured by well-being index and satisfaction index is significantly related to the variables of private support network and public trust. In the mean time, the quality of life measured by dimensions of public shpere and personal relationship sphere is strongly linked with the organizational membership and private support network.