CLIENTS OR CITIZENS

John McKnight's The Careless Society tellingly exposes the ways the pr ofessionalized welfare state creates dependency But McKnight is too qu ick to condemn this result as the product of professional self-interes t, and to posit as the alternative a selfless, republican model of com munity. He overlooks the more realistic possibility that the pursuit o f their interests by social groups empowered to take cave of themselve s would better serve those interests, and would simultaneously create a feeling of interdependence and civic responsibility.