Three realms of society :
* the economy;
* politics and human rights;
* cultural institutions.

He suggested that the three would only function together harmoniously when each was granted sufficient independence.This has become known as "social threefolding". Separation between the state and cultural life Examples: A government should not be able to control culture; i.e., how people think, learn, or worship. A particular religion or ideology should not control the levers of the State. Steiner held that pluralism and freedom were the ideal for education and cultural life.

Separation between the economy and cultural life Examples: The fact that churches, temples and mosques do not make the ability to enter and participate depend on the ability to pay, and that libraries and some museums are open to all free of charge, is in tune with Steiner’s notion of a separation between cultural and economic life. In a similar spirit, Steiner held that all families, not just rich ones, should have freedom of choice in education and access to independent, non-government schools for their children.

Other examples: A corporation should not be able to control the cultural sphere by using economic power to bribe schools into accepting ‘educational’ programs larded with advertising, or by paying scientists to produce research results favorable to the business’s economic interests.

Separation between the state and the economy (stakeholder economics) Examples: A rich man should be prevented from buying politicians and laws. A politician shouldn’t be able to parlay his political position into riches earned by doing favors for businessmen. Slavery is unjust, because it takes something political, a person’s inalienable rights, and absorbs them into the economic process of buying and selling. Steiner said, "In the old days, there were slaves. The entire man was sold as commodity... Today, capitalism is the power through which still a remnant of the human being—his labor power—is stamped with the character of a commodity."
Steiner also advocated more cooperatively organized forms of capitalism (what might today be called stakeholder capitalism) precisely because conventional shareholder capitalism tends to absorb the State and human rights into the economic process and transform them into mere commodities.

Three realms of money Dr D. Brüll, a co-founder of the Triodos bank, did work on social three-folding and its relationship to money in a study group. Several books were published on this by Dr D. Brüll and his colleagues in the Netherlands. Similar work has been done by Michael Spence, an English author. Money could be defined as: 'A token or representation of the work done for society by a business or individual; the amount society is indebted to the individual in services'. Money is earned through effort by the individual/business carrying out work for society, i.e. producing a product.

Consumption
Money used to purchase goods is earned by doing services for society and can be exchanged for services or consumables in society.
Loans
Money lent to fund economic ventures has been earned by individuals or businesses who have chosen to use it for this purpose rather than to purchase consumables. This includes capital venture, which is effectively a loan which gives rights of all or a share of the profits to a funder.

Donations
The cultural realm (education, religion, research etc) by businesses and individuals is largely supported by donations. Dr D. Brüll suggested that all the profits from businesses - i.e. what remains after the workers have been paid a share and loans and interest have been paid back - should be freely donated to education and cultural endeavors. According to social three-folding giving rights of all profits to shareholders leads to an unhealthy social organism.
"In business profits are made through creativity and inspiration. People get creativity and inspiration from the cultural realm. It therefore makes sense to return the profit back to the cultural realm of society. Taxes are a form of forced donation, it acts as a pump forcing profits from businesses into the cultural realm. It means, since taxes are controlled by the government, that the cultural realm is indirectly controlled by the government, which leads to an unhealthy social organism."

According to social three-folding, in a healthy social organism money ideally should be donated in freedom to the cultural sphere. Education's relation to the state and the economy Steiner’s view of education’s social position calls for special comment. For Steiner, separation of the cultural sphere from the political and economic spheres meant education should be available to all children regardless of the ability of families to pay for it and, on the elementary and secondary level, should be provided for by private and|or state scholarships that a family could direct to the school of its choice. Steiner was a supporter of educational freedom, but was flexible, and understood that a few legal restrictions on schools (such as health and safety laws), provided they were kept to an absolute minimum, would be necessary and justified.


"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"

Steiner held that the French Revolution's slogan, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, expressed in an unconscious way the distinct needs of the three social spheres at the present time:

* Liberty in cultural life,
* Equality in a democratic political life, and
* Solidarity in economic life.

According to Steiner, these values, each one applied to its proper social realm, would tend to keep the cultural, economic and political realms from merging unjustly, and allow these realms and their respective values to check, balance and correct one another. The result would be a society-wide separation of powers. Steiner argued that increased autonomy for the three spheres would not eliminate their mutual influence, but would cause that influence to be exerted in a more healthy and legitimate manner, because the increased separation would prevent any one of the three spheres from dominating. In the past, according to Steiner, lack of autonomy had tended to make each sphere merge in a servile or domineering way with the others. Among the various kinds of macrosocial imbalance Steiner observed, there were three major types:

* Theocracy, in which the cultural sphere (in the form of a religious impulse) dominates the economic and political spheres.
* State Communism and state socialism, in which the state (political sphere) dominates the other two spheres.
* Corporate capitalism, in which the economic sphere dominates the other two spheres.

Steiner points toward social conditions where domination by any one sphere is increasingly reduced, so that theocracy, communism, and corporate capitalism might all be gradually transcended. For Steiner, threefolding was not a social recipe or blueprint. It could not be "implemented" like some utopian program in a day, a decade, or even a century. It was a complex open process that began thousands of years ago and that he thought was likely to continue for thousands more.
Civil society Institutions of civil society -- non-profits that for the most part are independent of both the State and the economic life—are globally on the rise.[citation needed] This is seen by some observers as a sign of the cultural realm developing independence from governmental and economic institutions. Politicians working out of a threefold social vision Nicanor Perlas, winner of the alternative Nobel prize, has recently (in 2009) announced his candidacy for the presidency of the Philippines. Perlas has developed and applied Steiner's social threefolding ideas for decades.