Communitarianism

Communitarianism, as a coherent body of thought, is a movement that seeks to resolve social problems by strengthening individual commitment to the broader society. The movement began to coalesce in the early 1990s among predominantly U.S. social scientists. Its chief proponent is sociologist Amitai Etzioni (president of the American Sociological Association, 1994–95), who, along with political scientist William A. Galston, among others, formed the Communitarian Network in 1990. One of the major components of that network is the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies at George Washington University, which began publishing The Responsive Community in 1990. Publication ceased in 2004 after 54 issues.

Communitarianism, in broad terms, is a partial rejection of the liberal ideology that has been a cornerstone of Western political and social thought for approximately 200 years. Liberalism maintains that the rights of individuals supersede the rights of the group and that governments are formed to secure individual liberties. Communitarians claim that the responsibilities individuals have to each other and to the larger society have taken a backseat to individual rights, and this has led to a downward spiral of selfishness, greed, and conflict. In U.S. society, and throughout much of the modern world, rights have trumped responsibilities. Individuals have gained a strong sense of entitlement but with a rather weak sense of obligation to the broader group—whether it be family, community, or society.

However, the communitarian rejection of liberalism is not wholesale. The Responsive Communitarian Platform, adopted in 1991, states that the communitarian perspective “recognizes both individual human dignity and the social dimension of human existence.” Communitarians emphasize the need to understand that individual lives are inextricably tied to the good of communities, out of which individual identity has been constituted.

Etzioni's 1993 book, The Spirit of Community, details the communitarian perspective on U.S. social problems and offers a prescription for strengthening moral values. Etzioni argues that law and order, families, schools, and the individual's sense of social responsibility can be restored without the country becoming a police state and that the power of special interests can be curtailed without limiting constitutional rights to lobby and petition those who govern.

The Responsive Communitarian Platform states some of the major principles of the movement:

• Community (families, neighborhoods, nations) cannot survive unless members dedicate some of their attention and resources to shared projects.
• Communitarians favor strong democracy. They seek to make government more representative, more participatory, and more responsive.
• Communitarians urge that all educational institutions provide moral education, that they should teach values that Americans share.
• The right to be free of government intervention does not mean to be free from moral claims. Civil society requires that we be each other's keepers.
• The parenting deficit must be reduced. Parents should spend more time with their children; child care and socialization are not responsibilities that other institutions should take on large scale.
• Education for values and character formation is more “basic” than academic skills.
• Reciprocity is at the heart of social justice.