Voluntary local action seemed puny in the face of the ferocious scale of the problems we wanted to fix. Adopting the instincts and systems of the factory seemed sensible. But there are limits to rational action. The problems are more complex and interconnected. They occur at a scale that government often can't see.
Solutions have to be smaller, but networked to gain in efficiency and impact.
So the pendulum is swinging back to civil society but that brings more questions. 3.We need to revisit some fundamental themes in the great and continuing experiment of democracy and freedom. We need to balance the sometimes competing legitimacy of civil society and the institutions of representative, parliamentary democracy. But that can't be at the expense of the passion and autonomy on which they thrive. We need to explore its new responsibilities in society without crippling its primary role to create wealth and extend the boundaries of opportunity and enterprise.