Communitarianism

Communitarianism Revisited

Interview with Dr. Simon Dawes & Professor Etzioni

Professor Amitai Etzioni recently published an article outlining his liberal communitarian approach to balancing press freedom with national security, and criticising the publication of Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations. In this short interview, Dr. Simon Dawes asks him to outline his concept of communitarianism, his communitarian approach to values such as press freedom, privacy and national security, as well as his criticisms of the Snowden affair.

On Communitarian and Global Sources of Legitimacy

Although the concept of legitimacy is widely invoked in social science literature, political disclosure, and common parlance, key empirical and normative questions about legitimacy are often left far from answered, especially "Legitimated by whom?" and "Legitimated by what criteria?"

The Normativity of Human Rights is Self Evident

Attempts to justify human rights in terms of other sources of normativity unwittingly weaken the case of human rights. Instead these rights should be treated as moral causes that speak to us directly, as one of those rare precepts that are self-evident.

The Common Good and Rights: A Neo-Communitarian Approach

The moral value of human rights and liberty is so central to scholars, activists, and citizens in the West that they are taken as more or less self-evident truths. This essay shares this assumption. However, it asks: Do human right and liberty provide a sufficient moral foundation for a good society?

The Communitarian Constitution by Beau Breslin

“The Communitarian Constitution by Beau Breslin,” Perspectives on Political Science 37, No. 1 (Winter 2008), pp. 60-61.

Unfortunately, the failed policies with which The Case for Democracy is associated will likely lead many to avoid this rich, interesting, and well-developed work.

Citizenship Tests: A Comparative, Communitarian Perspective

At first, it may seem that citizenship tests are just what their title implies: tests that determine whether a person is qualified to become a citizen. Actually, in many nations that require such citizenship tests, the vast majority of the individuals involved are not required to command any qualifications to become a citizen and hence are not tested.

A Communitarian Approach: A Viewpoint on the Study of the Legal, Ethical and Policy Considerations Raised by DNA Tests and Databases

This article seeks to outline a viewpoint on the study of the legal, ethical and policy considerations raised by DNA tests and databases (from here on, DNA usages). It does not delve into the specifics involved. It outlines a way of thinking that has proven productive elsewhere and seems promising in dealing with DNA usages in the United States, but little more. Given that this essay is about a communitarian approach that draws on specific communitarian values, I turn next to briefly present the approach here followed.

KELO V. NEW LONDON’ States to the Rescue

States are moving to limit the damage done to justice by Kelo v. New London. In this case, the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 majority, vastly expanded the concept of eminent domain. It ruled in favor of what correctly has been called a "Reverse Robin Hood." The court ruling has benefited a group of businesses and local government interests in the New London, Conn., area including the New London Development Corp., drug giant Pfizer Inc. and private real estate developers.

Response to Simon Prideaux’s ‘From Organisational Theory to the New Communitarianism of Amitai Etzioni

“Response to Simon Prideaux’s ‘From Organisational Theory to the New Communitarianism of Amitai Etzioni’.” Canadian Journal of Sociology. Vol. 30, No. 2 (2005) pp. 215-217.

A Communitarian Position for Civil Unions

Professor Shanley's argument is compelling, powerful, and well grounded in communitarian arguments. However, when all is said and done she does not directly address the question of whether gay and lesbian unions should be accorded the same legal status as heterosexual ones.

Communitarianism from the Encyclopedia of Community

Communitarianism is a social philosophy that maintains that society should articulate what is good–that such articulations are both needed and legitimate. Communitarianism is often contrasted with classical liberalism, a philosophical position that holds each individual should formulate the good on his or her own.

The Good Society

This essay explores some of the elements of what makes for a good society--or--community--from a communitarian viewpoint, with consideration from a combination of social facts as seen by sociologist. Additionally, ethical considerations, with special attention paid to exclusivity and to equality, are addressed.

The Communitarian Model

“The Communitarian Model.” Building a Healthy Culture: Strategies for an American Renaissance, (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co: Grand Rapids, MI, 2001), 246-259.

Is Bowling Together Sociologically Lite

Robert Putnam's new book raises crucial questions for the analysis of the social and moral future of American society. He demonstrates that the old, 1950s social fabric, and the white male dominated social bonds on which it was based, have largely frayed. Numerous kinds of civic engagement have declined, including participation in voluntary associations, public life, and religious activities. Putnam documents well that the anomie that followed this disengagement has had numerous ill effects on individuals and on society that are usually associated with the breakdown of social order, such as the increase in violent crime. The unavoidable question therefore is: What is going to fill the gnawing social vacuum? While he addresses this question largely in terms of a need to recreate social connectedness or community, it cannot be adequately answered, I shall argue, without examining the sources and content of a new shared moral culture.

For a Soft Moral Culture

Americans aspire to a society that is not merely civil but also good. A good society is one in which people treat one another as ends in themselves and not merely as instruments, a society in which each person is shown full respect and dignity rather than being used and manipulated.

Law in Civil Society, Good Society, and the Prescriptive State

Two recent reports call attention to the fact that the American society faces two "crises" rather than one. These studies are the National Commission On Civic Renewal's A Nation of Spectators: How Civic Disengagement Weakens America and What We Can Do About It (from here on A Nation of Spectators), and the Institute for American Values' A Call to Civil Society: Why Democracy Needs Moral Truths (from here on A Call to Civil Society).

Debating the Societal Effects of the Internet: Connecting with the World

One can readily sympathize with Professors Norman Nie and Lutz Erbring, the investigator and co-investigator of a recent study on the social consequences of the internet conducted by the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society. Like many scholars before them who have conducted extensive surveys, their results at first seemed rather self-evident and dull. They spent much effort and resources to reach 4,113 adults in 2,689 households. They analyzed their data and came up with such findings as the internet is used more for e-mail (90%) than banking (12%), more people use the internet for surfing (69%) than for trading stocks (7%), and those who use it extensively spend less time in traffic (14% of heavy users).

Toward a Theory of Public Ritual

Given that holidays both reflect a society's attributes and serve to modify these attributes, they are a valuable tool for a macro-sociological analysis. This paper proceeds by examining Durkheim's well-known contributions on rituals and advancing theoretical ideas on how these might be modified, seeking to develop a theory of holidays.

A Contemporary Conception of Privacy

The headlines remind us almost daily that privacy is endangered, but there are times when our commitment to privacy endangers public health and public safety. Frequently, the common good is neglected to protect privacy. Good societies carefully balance individual rights and social responsibilities, autonomy and the common good, privacy and concerns for public safety and public health, rather than allow one value or principle, to dominate. Once we accept the concept of balance, the question arises as to how we determine whether our policy is off balance and in what direction it needs to move, and to what extent, to restore balance.

Moral Dialogues: A Communitarian Core Element

Communitarians argue that democratic societies require a core of shared values; that if democracy is merely a procedure that allows individuals who have different ultimate normative commitments to settle differences, then that polity will lack in legitimacy.

Cross Cultural Judgements: The Next Steps

“Cross Cultural Judgements: The Next Steps.” War and Border Crossings, ed. Peter A. French and Jason A. Short. (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005) pp. 107-119.

A Moderate Communitarian Proposal

On some of the long-debated issues between libertarians and communitarians the two sides are narrowing their differences.

New Signposts on the Road to Civilisation

OUR CULTURE looks at new-born children through rose-tinted glasses. "They're so cute," everyone coos. Yet looked at objectively their behaviour is rather like that of animals: they take in food, expel waste and shriek. More importantly, they command no inborn moral or social values, and they do not develop such virtues on their own. These facts are the historical reason why families - nuclear and extended - were entrusted with civilising these little creatures.

Balancing Act. Don’t sacrifice the common good to personal ‘rights’

It is no accident that the issue of gun sweeps in Chicago’s public housing recently caught the attention of the president of the United States and the national press. The question of the legitimacy of those sweeps has profound implications for the future of civility in American society.

Schools and the Subject of Character

Should schools be in the character-formation business? The heated debate on this issue is largely theoretical in the worse sense of the term. Whether educators are aware of it or not, schools do shape the development of their students’ characters, for better or for worse. Schools that follow a policy of automatic promotion - for example, allowing students who are disruptive, truant, or failing, to advance from grade to grade and ultimately to graduate - send a strong message to students that misconduct carries no undesirable consequences. As this message is repeated year after year, throughout one’s school career, it has clear characterological effects.

Group Searches Are Here to Stay

Nobody calls it “group searches,” not to mention “the search and seizure of the innocents,” although both terms would capture an important trend in our courts’ interpretations of the Fourth Amendment. In fact, many observers still cite what is held to be the prevailing interpretation of the Fourth Amendment: that no one is subject to search and seizure unless there is “probable cause” that the particular person has committed a crime, is committing one or appears predisposed to commit one (say, carries a bomb).

How About a Bill of Responsibilities?

The Founding Fathers did not bother to write down a bill of particulars for our social responsibilities to match the Bill of Rights. In the days of closely knit communities and religiously committed individuals, one’s responsibilities were all too clear, it was rights that needed enshrining. However, as public opinion polls keep reminding us, it seems we have come full circle: Rights are now taken for granted while responsibilities are shirked.

Virtues in a Democracy

Family is Basis of Community

“What is Communitarianism?” we are frequently asked. We are a social movement aiming at shoring up the moral, social and political environment. Part change of heart, part renewal of social bonds, part reform of public life.

Clinton’s first job: Lobbyists

If you want a premonition of what the Clinton administration is going to be like, watch how he deals with the first interest group that accosts him. You will not have to wait long. Representatives of interest groups are already lining up, six lobbyists deep, in the corridors of Congress, to ensure that no Clinton (or any other) initiative will be passed without their exacting a few pounds of flesh.

A Social-Science Court Could Inform the Debate Over Family Values

Some social conservatives, such as the Rev. Pat Robertson, label the Democrats anti-family and claim they do not believe in God, would not oppose an abortion for a 13-year-old-girl, and would allow gay marriages. Some liberals counter that it is the Republicans who are anti-family, pointing to President Bush’s veto of legislation that would have required companies above a certain size to provide unpaid leave for parents. They also claim that his Administration has not provided enough funds for child care or improved the economy enough to keep children from sinking deeper into poverty.

Contemporary Liberals, Communitarians, and Individual Choices

The recent flurry of exchanges between contemporary liberal philosophers and their communitarian critics points to a theoretical middle ground, directly relevant to economics.

Social Science as a Multicultural Canon

The current debate over educational canons largely involves the humanities disciplines of history and literature.

American Competitiveness: The Moral Dimension

At first glance, America's loss of competitiveness seems a simple matter. The litany is all too familiar.

Eastern Europe: The Wealth of Lessons

Frictions-psychological, sociological, political-is a major social science variable. During changes, friction is high. The post-communist transition from command economics to freer ones vividly highlights the perils of ignoring this basic factor.

A Vote for Peer Pressure

The moaning and groaning coming from American corporations seems excessive. It has been going on since well before the United States Sentencing Commission presented its recommendations on penalties for corporate crime to Congress last week, and it may even accelerate while Congress studies the report.

The New Rugged Communitarianism

For several years, on many fronts, champions of greater responsibility to the community have become something of a new force in American life. They think of themselves as “communitarians,” though so far there is no registry of communitarians and no formal association. Nevertheless, their influence is real enough, and so are their objectives: to evolve public policies, moral norms, and regulatory guidelines that will correct what they perceive as excessive, “radical” individualism.

Getting Down to Business on Corporate Crime

The business community is up in arms about attempts to toughen the penalties for corporations that violate the law. In April, business leaders successfully pressured the White House and, through it, the Department of Justice to hold back the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which was about to recommend guidelines that would have required stiff fines - up to hundreds of millions of dollars per offense - for convicted corporations.

No Place for Troubled Teen-Agers

Sally, 16, used to spend entire weekends with an older man in bohemian Greenwich Village in New York City. For a while, she was sleeping with two guys.

When her more traditionally minded, single mother tried to put an end to these liaisons, Sally told her to buzz off, using a less printable term.Her outraged mother felt she could not “control” Sally and had her committed to a mental hospital with the help of a psychiatrist she knew. Because Sally tried to escape by breaking down a door, she was declared “violent” and heavily sedated. Now she drifts between docility and disorientation.

ACLU is Running a Risk: Excessive Individualism

John Tanton, M.D., is about to strike again. This time his target is the American Civil Lbierties Union (ACLU). He is launching a counter-organization, the American Civil Rights and Responsibilities Union (ACRRU). The ACRRU will conduct educational campaigns, draft legislation, and file briefs to help ensure that the rights and needs of the commons will not be neglected in hot pursuit of Me-ism and special interests.

The Fast-Food Factories: McJobs are Bad for Kids

McDonald's is bad for your kids. I do not mean the flat patties and the white-flour buns; I refer to the jobs teen-agers undertake, mass-producing these choice items.

Growing Up In a World of Hard Choices

An old Chinese proverb - or is it a curse? - reads "May you live in interesting times"

The Industry Called Parenting

Even as we admire the prospects of technology, we cannot disregard the human factor, which increasingly appears to be coming unhinged.

The Need to Put a Price on Life

Representatives of several leading U.S. corporations have adopted a new technique against the movement for safer products, workplaces and other environments. Rather than get entangled in the complex and emotional questions of how much safety we can afford, how much a life is worth, they have chosen - indeed, invented - a much easier target: the "risk-free society."

Mugging is Now the Number One Topic

I have returned to New York City after five months in Palo Alto, California.

CATV: High Potential, Many Problems

The much maligned TB box-"waste-land" "boob tube"- may yet be the foundation of culture, education and information the American home.

Democratic and Non-Democratic Supervision in Industry

The human relations school has often been criticized for not paying enough attention to structural and cultural factors and for focusing on factors which can be controlled.