ABSTRACT
Businesses set up nonprofits to lobby, and community development groups become closely involved with businesses. Many of the ideals associated with democracy are centered on the medium of organization and its vitality within democratic societies. Politics, especially democratic politics, is not just about managing conflict in the face of power, but is also about deliberating over and deciding, to borrow from Max Weber, what we should do and how we should live. Capacities and virtues that attach to the normative medium of organization are read onto the sector and the organizations that inhabit it. The more blending is between associative media and state or market powers, however, the more likely organizations are to generate effects that corrode rather than complement democracy.
