The horizon for this essay is framed by the notion of subsidiarity, drawn from Catholic social thought, by the history of “the city” as a site of public, rather than exclusively individual freedom, and by the current state of a particular liberal society – our own. I begin with the third of these concerns, which translates into a focus on the fate of civil society in the US. By this I mean “the many forms of community and association that are not political in form: families, neighborhoods, voluntary associations of innumerable kinds, labor unions, small businesses, giant corporations, and religious communities.” When we think of civil society we think of networks of voluntary associations and the obligations they involve. Some may cavil at the notion that such associations are not “political,” but theorists of civil society would insist, in response, that this network and the many ways we are nested within it lie outside the formal structure of state power.

THE FATE OF CIVIL SOCIETY

It is by now a familiar lament that all is not well with us, that something has gone terribly awry with the North American version of market-modernity. The man, and woman, in the street speaks of a loss of neighborliness, of growing fear and suspicions, of the enhanced sexual, commercial, and contractual pressures upon the young. Things used to be better, and easier, they say. Now there is not enough time to be a parent and a citizen and a worker. All the evidence is consistent on this score. Explanations for our discontents vary, as do prescriptions for a cure.