THE END OF LAISSEZ-FAIRE

clearer, in some respects a more muddledversion of just the same philosophy as under-lies nineteenth-century individualism. Bothequally laid all their stress on freedom, theone negatively to avoid limitations on existingfreedom, the other positively to destroynatural or acquired monopolies. They aredifferent reactions to the same intellectualatmosphere.

(2) I come next to a criterion of Agendawhich is particularly relevant to what it isurgent and desirable to do in the near future.We must aim at separating those serviceswhich are technically social from those whichare technically individual. The most impor-tant Agenda of the State relate not to thoseactivities which private individuals are alreadyfulfilling, but to those functions which falloutside the sphere of the individual, to thosedecisions which are made by no one if theState does not make them. The importantthing for Government is not to do thingswhich individuals are doing already, and to dothem a little better or a little worse; but to46