8-13-95. Sunday NYPaper: "Bigger Than the Family, Smaller Than the State: Are voluntary groups what make countries work?" [Book review] Mr. Fukuyama has shifted his attention from the state to society; the result is a fascinating and frustrating book, "Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity." We have settled on the structure of the state, he writes, but "liberal political and economic institutions depend on a healthy and dynamic civil society for their vitality." In the world of ideas, civil society is hot. It is almost impossible to read an article on foreign or domestic politics without coming across some mention of the concept. And "civil society" has bipartisan appeal; from Hillary Rodham Clinton to Pat Buchanan, politicians of all stripes routinely sing its praises. Behind much of the new interest in civil society, on the part of communitarians as well as social conservatives, is the idea that culture and society shape the nature of government. But the space between the realm of government and that of the family can be filled with all kinds of associations, liberal and illiberal. Historians have amply laid out how the Nazi Party made its first inroads through infiltrating local groups. On a less extreme note, many of the small groups that have formed in America over the last two decades have been thoroughly illiberal in spirit: victims' groups that have discouraged individual responsibility, minority clubs that have Balkanized the campus and the workplace, pseudoreligious cults with violent agendas. Not all of civil society is civic minded. A report on Timothy J. McVeigh's civil life noted that Mr. McVeigh and Terry and James Nichols, would go bowling and plan their future. But perhaps we would all have been better off if Mr. McVeigh had gone bowling alone. YOM_ama (about 14K)