The significance of the third sector has increased considerably in the recent
years. By the concept "the third sector" we mean all such social activities,
whose object are human beings (education, health care, social work, cultural
administration etc.). In the modern society social activities, human beings as
their objects, were exercised by the state. During the recent years the
situation has changed. In the place of the state there have stepped private
companies, co-operatives, NGOs, churches and other actors. For example in the
United States 90 million people are working at least three hours a week without
payment for a some kind of NGO of general usefulness.
Also the economic significance of the third sector has increased in an
"explosive" way. And not just for the companies: millions of people become
employed in non-profit organizations. Therefore the third sector does not only
produce useful services without the guardianism characteristic to the state, but
it is often able to do it without aiming for profit. Of course there are certain
services, such as hospitals, which cannot function solely on voluntary
workforce, but it is also true that e.g. in the United States many societies,
churches and NGOs offer hospital services for competitive price or even free for
their own members.
The great political meaning of the third sector is that in the future it will be
able to offer an opportunity for community, togetherness, solidarity and
citizenship without the intervention of the national state. Here lies its
"revolutionality". In addition to this the third sector - exactly because it is
based on voluntary work, the opposite of wage work - has been described as the
first step to a post-capitalist society.