‘The Nonprofit Crisis’ offers valuable insight into what we’re losing as polarized politics takes over our culture.
—
Nonprofits have a long and storied history in the United States. When Alexis de Tocqueville visited this country in the 19th century, he intended to study its prisons. Instead, he wrote one of the most perceptive analyses of American political life. Among his many insights was an observation about what we now sometimes call “the third sector.” In France, citizens who encountered social problems tended to look to the government for solutions. Americans, Tocqueville noticed, were different. Rather than waiting for official action, they organized themselves. They had a talent for self-government.
WhatTocquevilleobservedhasimplicationsforthenonprofitsectortoday.GregBermanwarnsabouttheevolution(ordevolution)ofthenonprofitsectorfromthoseTocquevillianbeginningsinTheNonprofitCrisis:LeadershipThroughtheCultureWars.Butit’salsoabookaboutliberalism,thepoliticalphilosophydevelopedalongsidetheAmericanrepublic.Liberalismheredoesn’tmeanleft-wingpolitics;itreferstothepursuit
