"The main thesis of the book is that the welfare state cannot have a sustainable future, given the overburdened state budget, unless it is managed by a strategic planning process. The book deals, moreover, with the new emergence of a nonprofit private sector that feeds a kind of 'associative economy'.

In this economy, which can be termed 'post-industrial society', deep changes occur in the structure of consumption preferences, production modes, labour-market behaviour and the role played by the state."--BOOK JACKET.