ABSTRACT
Past UK governments have attempted to attach a community glow to education, health, local taxes, with community governors in schools, care in the community and the community charge. Before the May 1997 General Election, New labour visited the US and returned with a new mantra: 'the individual, society, and state'. Community in its many guises has become a popular notion and has gained political credibility. Though a difficult concept to define, community has become an apparatus, a vehicle and a mechanism for righting aU wrongs. Will this be matched by a new commitment to support communities and those working in them? Or will communities be rejected yet again if they fail to produce the politicians' dreams.
