What is Communitarianism?
Communitarianism starts with the idea that nobody is a self-made individual. We are born into families, languages, faiths and neighborhoods, and these form who we are. Communitarians argue that politics should take this seriously. A society, they say, needs shared values, trust and a sense of duty, as well as rights and freedoms. They worry that too much stress on personal choice leaves people lonely and weakens civic life. Most communitarians are not against rights or democracy. Their point is about balance: rights come with responsibilities, and the common good counts alongside private goals. The label covers thinkers on both the left and the right.
Core beliefs
- People's identities come from the communities they belong to.
- Rights should be matched by responsibilities to others.
- Families, schools, churches and local groups are the foundations of a healthy society.
- A shared idea of the common good matters, and politics should not be neutral about every value.
- Strong civic ties build trust, and trust makes democracy work.
- Markets and the state should support community life, not replace it.
History
The roots go back to Aristotle, who saw humans as political creatures who flourish in a city. In 1887 the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies set out the contrast between Gemeinschaft, meaning community, and Gesellschaft, meaning a looser society of contracts. The modern movement took shape in the 1980s. Philosophers criticized the liberal theory of John Rawls for picturing people as separate from their goals and ties. In the United States, Robert Bellah and his co-authors published Habits of the Heart in 1985, a study of American individualism. In 1991 Amitai Etzioni and others issued the Responsive Communitarian Platform, and Etzioni founded a journal and network to spread the idea. The approach was noticed by political leaders in the 1990s, especially on the center-left in the United States and Britain.
Variants
Philosophical communitarians, mostly writing in the 1980s, challenged liberal theory in debates about justice and the self. Responsive communitarians, led by Etzioni, aimed at practical policy and insisted on keeping individual rights strong. Conservative strands look to religion and tradition. Left strands link community to economic fairness and local democracy. Some governments in East Asia have also used the language of shared values, with more stress on order than Western communitarians accept.
Criticisms
Liberal critics ask whose community and whose values. They worry that appeals to shared norms can crush minorities, dissenters and people who want to live differently. Feminists have pointed out that many traditional communities kept women in unequal roles. Others say the theory is vague and does not offer clear answers on which rights should give way to the common good. Some communitarians reply that these worries are fair, which is why they insist on a core of rights and on open debate within communities.
In practice
Communitarian ideas have shaped policy on volunteering, community policing, civic education, national service and local renewal. Politicians on both sides have borrowed its language about responsibility and social capital. On the 12 axes it sits near the middle on Structure, since it values both local groups and national bonds, and it leans toward Traditional on Morality and Order on Security.