Communitarianism
Communitarianism, social and political philosophy that
emphasizes the importance of community in the functioning of political life, in
the analysis and evaluation of political institutions, and in understanding
human identity and well-being. It arose in the 1980s as a critique of two
prominent philosophical schools: contemporary liberalism, which seeks to
protect and enhance personal autonomy and individual rights in part through the
activity of government, and libertarianism, a form of liberalism (sometimes
called “classical liberalism”) that aims to protect individual
rights—especially the rights to liberty and property—through strict limits on
governmental power.
Communitarian ideas have also played a significant role
in public life through their incorporation into the electoral platforms and
policies of Western political leaders of the late 20th and early 21st
centuries, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Dutch Prime Minister
Jan Peter Balkenende, and U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama
Liberals and libertarians responded by characterizing the communitarian
position as akin to East Asian authoritarian communitarianism. They also argued
that social formulations of the good—and the obligations they generate, which
individuals must then discharge—can sometimes be oppressive. Some libertarians
cited taxes and mandatory vaccinations as examples of such obligations.
Communitarianism is a 20th Century political and social
ideology emphasizing the interests of the community over those of the
individual. Communitarianism is often considered the opposite of liberalism, the theory that places the interests of the
individual above those of the community. In this context, communitarian beliefs
may have been most clearly expressed in the 1982 movie Star Trek II: The
Wrath of Khan, when Captain Spock tells Admiral James T. Kirk that, “Logic
clearly dictates the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
During the mid-nineteenth century, the concept of
communal—rather than individual—ownership and control of property and natural
resources formed the basis of classical socialist doctrine, as expressed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their Communist Manifesto of 1848. In Volume 2, for example,
Marx proclaimed that in a truly socialist society “The condition for the free
development of each is the free development of all.”
The specific term “communitarianism” was coined in the
1980s by social philosophers in comparing contemporary liberalism, which
advocated using the powers of government to protect individual rights,
with classical liberalism, which called for protecting individual
rights by limiting the powers of government.
In contemporary politics, former British Prime Minister
Tony Blair applied communitarian beliefs through his advocacy of a “stakeholder
society” in which businesses should be responsive to the needs of their workers
and the consumer communities they served. Similarly, the “compassionate conservatism” initiative of former U.S.
President George W. Bush stressed the use of conservative policy as
the key to improving the general welfare of American society.
Political Theory in a
globalizing Word
Political
globalization refers to the growth of the worldwide political system, both in
size and complexity. That system includes national governments, their
governmental and intergovernmental organizations as well as
government-independent elements of global civil society such as international
non-governmental organizations and social movement organizations. One of the
key aspects of the political globalization is the declining importance of the
nation-state and the rise of other actors on the political scene. The creation
and existence of the United Nations is called one of the classic examples of
political globalization.
Political
globalization is one of the three main dimensions of globalization commonly
found in academic literature, with the two other being economic globalization
and cultural globalization. First, globalization has intensified global and
regional patterns of exchange (political, economic, cultural) and thus has made
us aware that our actions have implications that do not stop at our own
borders, but have wider and more far-reaching effects.
