In the last five or six years Communitarian ideas have made their way into the speeches and platforms of a number of politicians in the UK and US, there have been attempts to launch communitarians as a political and social movement. The political agenda of Communitarianism in the 1990s is most concisely expressed in a document entitled “The Responsive Communitarian Platform,” co-authored by Amitai Etzioni, Mary Ann Glendon, and William Galston in 1991 and promoted by their organization, The Communitarian Network which was founded in 1993 by Etzioni. It encompasses the themes of family, education, public safety, and civic engagement. The Network is the most popular movement advocating Communitarianism by reaching out to the broader public through different initiatives to issues such as immigration.
Types of Communitarianism
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Philosophical Communitarianism considers classical liberalism to be ontologically (the study of the nature of being) and epistemologically (concerned with the nature and limitations of knowledge) incoherent, and opposes it on those grounds. Unlike classical liberalism, which interprets communities as originating from the voluntary acts of pre-community individuals, it emphasizes the role of the community in defining and shaping individuals.
- Ideological or Political Communitarianism is characterized as a radical centrist ideology that is sometimes marked by leftism on economic issues and conservatism on social issues.
Why Communitarianism?
- Communitarianism is the most powerful legal and justice theory in the world. Hidden from the average person, it is rarely mentioned by the mainstream press. As a combination of the ideals of the farthest right and the farthest left, the philosophy is fully exportable (Tam, 1998:5).
- Undoubtedly the major factor in the rise of the concept was a gathering dissatisfaction of liberalism.
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Modern day Communitarianism began in the form of a critical reaction to John Rawls 1971 book A Theory of Justice. Political philosophers such as Michael Sandel, and Michael Walzer disputed Rawls' assumption that the principal task of government is to secure and distribute fairly the liberties and economic resources individuals need to lead freely chosen lives.
The third way suggests that it is possible to combine social solidarity with a dynamic economy, and this is a goal contemporary social democrats should strive for. To pursue it, we will need less national government, less central government, but greater governance over local processes’, as well as opening out in the direction of the global community (Giddens, 2000:5)
Etzioni claims “The Third Way is a road that leads to a good society” (Etzioni, 2000:13).
The Third Way advocated by both Clinton and Blair, is another term for Communitarianism. Third way politicians claim they seek to find a middle ground between the far right and the far left. The Third Way is in favour of growth, entrepreneurship, enterprise and wealth creation but it is also in favour of greater social justice and it sees the state playing a major role in bringing this about. One of its central aims is to protect the modern welfare state through reforms that maintain its economic integrity.
Is it of any relevance to the 21st century?
Yes:
- Community has its place in a whole range of political ideologies or systems of thought, not just in Communitarianism: conservatism, anarchism, socialism, feminism, green political thought and even liberalism (Frazer, 1998:122)
- Implications for coalition building between different schools of political thought are obvious; however Communitarianism is making political headway as it got this potential of pulling diverse characters into an alliance.
- Frazer claims Communitarianism “rhetorical strength is clear enough” (Frazer, 1998:122).
- ‘Community’ has an added strength: it also has a central place in a whole range of non-theoretical, non-political discourses and practices that are important in many peoples day to day life: community centres, community work, community development and regeneration- all of these are significant sites of daily interaction for many people.
No:
- Communitarianism is often criticized for its presumption of harmony, and its inability to acknowledge or negotiate conflict. Perhaps most importantly, many feminists, cultural and race critics, and social movement theorists have challenged communitarians’ romanticized and exclusionary notion of community. Elizabeth Frazer critiques Communitarianism for overlooking the ‘politics of community,’ and failing to take into account unequal power dynamics that play out in personal relationships, communal structures, institutions, and systems (Frazer, 1998:110).
- Margaret Thatcher famously quoted “There is no such thing as Society. There are individual men and women, and there are families”
Bibliography
Etzioni, A. (1998): The Essential Communitarian Reader. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., USA
Frazer, E. (1998): ‘Communitarianism’ in Lent (1998) p. 112-123
Lent, A. (1998): New Political Thought: An Introduction. Lawrence & Wishart, London
Tam, H. (1998): Communitarianism: A New Agenda for Politics and Citizenship. Macmillan, London
