Social Coops and Social Care: An Emerging Role for Civil Society

Over the last twenty years, a profound change has taken place in the relationship between citizens and their governments. In the western democracies, the gradual transformation of social care into a commercial commodity has fundamentally altered the role of government as the primary provider of social care and public welfare. This change in the relations between the state and the citizenry has been marked by starkly different perspectives, deep conflict, and the radical realignment of social and state institutions. Nowhere has this conflict been more contentious than in the debate surrounding the role of government and the nature of public services.