The doors that open to civic engagement are in the neighborhoods, but the rooms where power is exercised are in the commercial capitals and global metropolises. In a time when society seems to be divided between two great powers, the government and the corporations, the rebirth of a strong civil society is will be a long a difficult labor. But a lively civil society is necessary not just to fill in the voids that government and corporations have neglected. A strong civil society is necessary to empower citizens and make government and corporations more beholden to the will of the people. In this regard, Barber makes a couple of important observations.
Local participation can have a very positive effect on existing forms of power.
The Libertarians, and many well-meaning people on the street are too willing to whittle down big government and hand over to the pieces to the corporate sector. Some advocate privatization because they are scheming up new ways to make a buck, others because they don't know a third way. The choice for many people is between privatization and big government. Communitarians reject this dichotomy but add another undesirable choice. While laissez-faire obsessives are loath to admit it, these defects are unfortunately found as much in private commerce as in the government, among firms and fraternities no less than in welfare bureaucracies.