Volunteerism and the Project of the Left: A Response to James Petras and Chronis Polychroniou Available to Purchase

This article challenges the notion that volunteer and government supported social services are in some sort of fundamental opposition. The problem arises when volunteerism is proposed as a substitute for state action in the arena of social welfare. Seeking to justify recent cutbacks in federal monies for social services, the Presidents’ Summit deliberately avoided this issue. Nevertheless, taken within the context of the principle of governmental responsibility for social well-being, voluntary association—private, but collectively organized action in the public sphere of civil society—is a necessary condition of democratic life.