ABSTRACT
The independent sector has a natural competitor: government. Both sectors operate in the same industry: public service and welfare. Sometimes, over the years, leaders on each side have sensed their competitive positions and built a fascinating record of both creative competition and deliberate collusion. The quality of life in the U. S. now depends largely on the revival of a lively competition between these two natural contenders for public responsibility. The very idea of competition with government is, by a weird public myth, thought to be illegitimate, disruptive, divisive, unproductive, and perhaps immoral. The commercial sector's driving force would operate aimlessly, often perversely, if it were not disciplined by competition. Independent sector leaders genially speak of complementing government, not competing with it—as if monopoly were good and competition destructive—thus unwittingly conspiring against the public interest. Like government, independent institutions are ineffective largely because they no longer compete.
