ABSTRACT
The community-service sector is likely to be one of the true “growth sectors” of developed economies, whereas authors can hope that the need for charity will eventually subside again. To foster autonomous community organizations in the social sector is therefore an important step in turning government around and making it perform again. But the greatest contribution that the autonomous community organization makes is as a new center of meaningful citizenship. The megastate has all but destroyed citizenship. To restore it, the post-capitalist polity needs a “third sector,” in addition to the two generally recognized ones, the “private sector” of business and the “public sector” of government. It needs an autonomous social sector. Equally, there is a need to restore community. Traditional communities no longer have much integrating power; they cannot survive the mobility that knowledge confers on the individual. Different societies and different countries will surely structure the social sector very differently.
