To Empower People: The Role of Mediating Structures in Public Policy

Two seemingly contradictory tendencies are evident in current thinking about public policy in America. First, there is a continuing desire for the services provided by the modern welfare state. Partisan rhetoric aside, few people seriously envisage dismantling the welfare state. The second tendency is one of strong animus against government, bureaucracy, and bigness as such. The public policy goal is to address human needs without exacerbating the reasons for animus against the welfare state. Modernization brings about an historically unprecedented dichotomy between public and private life. For the individual in modern society, life is an ongoing migration between these two spheres, public and private. The chapter focuses on four mediating structures—neighborhood, family, church, and voluntary association.