Abstract
In this chapter, the author distinguishes communitarian ideas with reference to five core formulations that gave rise to the ‘communitarian’ label, and traces their historical roots back to the Golden Rule of reciprocity that featured in all ancient civilisations. The chapter gives an outline of those formulations by Owenite thinkers; the communitarian critics of Rawls; the advocates for communitarian social markets; the liberal communitarian exponents of inclusive public policies; and the progressive communitarian synthesis that highlights the principles of mutual responsibility, cooperative enquiry, and citizen participation. On this basis, he sifts out misleading conceptions of ‘communitarian’ thinking, and commences his examination of communitarianism with a look at the germinal debates that took place amongst thinkers in ancient Greece and China over the proper direction for the development of community life.
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Notes
- 1.
For an analysis of the divergence between rhetorical references to Tony Blair as a communitarian, and actual policy attempts to advance communitarian objectives, see Hale (2006).
- 2.
According to a 2012 report by the Worldwatch Institute (Jha and LaSalle 2012). There were other influences on the proliferation of cooperatives. For example, F. W. Raiffeisen and Franz H. Schultz-Delitsch formed credit unions in Germany in 1862, and inspired the growth of financial co-operatives across the world. Charles Fourier raised interest in associative forms of working in France, though his approaches were to have less impact in the long term (Riasanovsky 1970).
- 3.
Despite the widespread use of the term ‘communitarian’ amongst academics to refer to Taylor , Walzer , Sandel , and MacIntyre , none of them was inclined to adopt that label which, as we have seen, could be casually and mistakenly used in some quarters to denote negative conservative views in support of oppressive community structures, or presented as fundamentally at odds with all forms of liberalism . Other writers, however, were more determined to affirm the progressive roots of communitarian ideas and defend its correct usage.
- 4.
The text of the Responsive Communitarian Platform can be found at: https://communitariannetwork.org/platform.
- 5.
For an account of the group’s promotion of communitarian policy ideas, see Etzioni (2003).
- 6.
Galston made his stance clear in Liberal Purposes: Goods, Virtues, and Diversity in the Liberal State (1991). Spragens adopted the term ‘communitarian liberalism ’ (1995), as did Selznick (2002). Etzioni’s book, Happiness Is the Wrong Metric (2018) carried a similar nomenclature in its subtitle, ‘a liberal communitarian response to populism’.
- 7.
In addition to European and American ideas, the book drew from Chinese philosophical thought, but notably from the egalitarian Mohist texts, and not from authoritarian interpretations of Confucianism.
- 8.
Tam drew attention to the symbiotic potential that was to be found between communitarian ideas and the cooperative movement (1995). He collaborated with Bellah , Derber , Selznick , and others to produce the book, Progressive Politics in the Global Age (Tam 2001), and he and Boswell issued a joint statement to set out an alternative political agenda to that of the post-2010 Conservative -led government (Boswell and Tam 2013).
- 9.
In my earlier book on communitarianism (Tam 1998), I put ‘cooperative enquiry ’ as the first key element, but more recently, further study of a range of issues has led me to conclude that ‘mutual responsibility ’ is primary, since it is the appreciation of the need for mutual responsibility that will make cooperative enquiry essential in finding objectively acceptable answers.
- 10.
This covers educational, research, media, investigative, judicial arrangements that are generally relied on to differentiate between what is and what is not to be believed in society.
- 11.
For example, when in the nineteenth century, in the absence of the secret ballot, tenant farmers were pressured into voting in line with their powerful landlords; or in contemporary society, where the wealthiest individuals and corporations can buy incomparably greater influence over public policy decisions than the vast majority of citizens.
- 12.
‘Confucianism’ is the common, though inadequate, translation of ‘Rujia ’ (儒家), the Chinese term for the School of Scholars-Cultural Advisors, which Confucius did not so much establish as develop into the most influential educators. Rujia existed before Confucius as a group of learned people whose expertise was on the correct rites and rituals to be followed for the sake of etiquette and social harmony. Confucius elevated their teachings to a higher level of moral exposition. See Yao (2000).
- 13.
The Chinese term in question, ‘兼愛’, has also been translated as ‘universal love’ or ‘mutual love’, but ‘love’ can be misinterpreted as personal feelings when, in this context, Mozi’s focus is on the concern people should have for others’ wellbeing on the basis of the concern they would want others to have for them.
- 14.
- 15.
There has been no shortage of casual commentary that attaches the ‘communitarian’ label quite arbitrarily to: Confucianism despite its many contrasting variants; authoritarian hierarchies; social relativists who see no basis for regarding any form of community as better than others; or advocates for simplistic and detached communal living.
- 16.
These critiques came from thinkers who included: the personalists (Martin Buber , Emmanuel Mounier , and John Macmurray ); participatory advocates such as G. D. H. Cole , José María Arizmendiarrieta Madariaga , Carole Pateman , etc.; and the critics of Rawls (Michael Sandel , Charles Taylor , Michael Walzer , and Alasdair MacIntyre ).
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Tam, H. (2019). The Roots of Communitarian Ideas. In: The Evolution of Communitarian Ideas. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26558-8_1
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