The Problems Of Communitarian Politics

This study offers a detailed critical analysis of the ideal of community in politics. The book traces elements of the idea of community in several social and philosophical contexts over the last century.

Although communitarianism has a long history, it has only recently emerged to pose a major challenge to the traditional left-right divide in politics and the competing principles of individualism and collectivism. Communitarianism is the first comprehensive and accessible introduction to communitarianism's ideas and their implications for politics and citizenship. Drawing on a wide range of international examples and engaging with communitarianism's critics, Tam demonstrates clearly its relevance to the United States and the world.

This book is volume three in the series and is the edited proceedings of the 1997 ALSP conference. The conference covered issues relating to Communitarianism and citizenship from socio-legal, philosophical and political perspectives. The papers are a collection drawn from international authors covering a wide variety of subjects such as tolerance, social citizenship and social rights in a global context.

This book deals with three key questions about communitarian ideas: how to distinguish what constitutes communitarian thinking; what lessons to take from the historical development of communitarian arguments; and why their practical implications are relevant in devising reforms at the local, national, and global levels. Each chapter covers a distinct period, with a critical exposition of the leading thinkers of that time who contributed to communitarian philosophy and politics. Beginning with an examination of the rise of proto-communitarian ideas in classical Western and Eastern thought, the book closes with a review of communitarian responses to the emergent social and technological changes in the 21st century. Readers will learn about the core features and significance of communitarian theories and practices in relation to morality, education, the economy, freedom and security, community development, and democratic governance; and how they compare and contrast with other ethical and intellectual outlooks.

Intended as a supplement in Social and Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Political Ideologies, and Democratic Theory, as well as a core volume for courses taught exclusively on communitarianism. That liberal democratic theory needs to be changed and our institutions need to be reformed is an argument strenuously resisted by many political philosophers. The most interesting development in political philosophy in the last 15 years has been the communitarian critique of liberalism. Communitarians insist that deficiencies in liberal theory are directly to blame for the declining fortunes of the American people. They propose to substitute the values of community for values of liberty and equality as the guiding ideal of our culture.

Many have criticized liberalism for being too individualist, but few have offered an alternative that goes beyond a vague affirmation of the need for community. In this entertaining book, written in dialogue form, Daniel Bell fills this gap, presenting and defending a distinctively communitarian theory against the objections of a liberal critic. In a Paris cafe Anne, a strong supporter of communitarian ideals, and Philip, her querulous critic, debate the issues. Drawing on the works of such thinkers as Charles Taylor, Michael Sandel, and Alasdair MacIntyre, Anne attacks liberalism's individualistic view of the person by pointing to our social embeddedness. She then develops Michael Walzer's idea that political thinking involves the interpretation of shared meanings emerging from the political life of a community, and rebuts Philip's criticism that this approach damages her case by being conservative and relativistic. She goes on to develop a justification of communal life and to answer the criticism that communitarians lack an alternative moral and political vision. The book ends with two later discussions, by Will Kymlicka and Daniel Bell, in which Anne and another friend, Louise, argue about the merits of the book's earlier debate and put it in perspective. Daniel Bell's book is a provocative defence of a distinctively communitarian theory which will stimulate interest and debate among both students of political theory and those approaching the subject for the first time.

In the last decade much contemporary political and moral thought has been devoted to the debate between communitarianism and individualism. While individualists advocate the notions of rights, neutrality, and impartiality, and see society as a voluntary association for mutual advantage, communitarians argue that individuals are never detached from their society, culture, and history and that if they are to be properly understood they must first be examined in these contexts. Moreover communitarians claim that individualism makes it impossible to achieve a genuine community which can offer its members a just distribution of goods and morally meaningful life. The essays collected in this volume reflect the many facets of this debate and examine its implications for the political arena. They cover a wide spectrum of thought and opinion and include work by Ronald Dworkin, Marilyn Friedman, David Gauthier, Amy Gutmann, Will Kymlicka, Alasdair MacIntyre, David Miller, Robert Nozick, John Rawls, Michael Sandel, Charles Taylor, and Michael Walzer.