The new communitarian movement: What makes it so popular?

Our discussion regarding communitarian movement in this article would be limited in context to current western society. So, it is important to keep this limitation in mind.

Continuing Erosion-Cum-Disintegration of Moral Order in Family since 1960s

Statistics reveals that proportion of nuclear families in US had decreased from 42 percent in 1960 to 26 percent in 1990; rate of divorce doubled during the same time period while rates of illegitimacy rose from 21 per 1000 births in 1960 to 42 in 1989. These, according to communitarian leaders, speak amply of continuing erosion-cum-disintegration of moral order in family within society during the period. Renewed stress on communitarian movement from the 1990s is perhaps targeted towards families where parents are negligent of their parental obligations: it seeks to instill in those parents a sense of moral responsibility towards their children.

Nation One Large Community on Which Provision of Welfare of People Depends

Ordinary people find it hard to understand what family stands for, what role of a man and a woman should be, and where a child stands in responsibility of their parents. This has impacted family, building block of any society, the most. Not surprisingly, family is seen to be primary unit to suffer. According to communitarian leader Paul Spicker, revival of institutions of family, neighborhood, and community would once again lay foundation of a vibrant communal atmosphere. David Miller, another communitarian leader, opines that nation is one large community on which provision of welfare of its people depends.

Communitarian Movement Offers a Channel to Reform While Remaining Neutral on Religion

Elsewhere and in the western countries, there has also been a rise in religious fundamentalism. As a result, there is compulsion on part of policy makers to be neutral on religion while promoting good ethics. In a secular setup, only way to bring all people together and make them agree to adhere to good moral behavior is through channels that are religiously neutral. Communitarian movement promises itself one such powerful channel.

Emotional Crisis Because of Too Much Freedom

At a time when most states do not prohibit abortion and are neutral on homosexual behavior, there is an emotional crisis on part of many new-age citizens because of too much freedom. In pursuit of being secular, there is little motivation to adhere to any strict laws other than legal rulings by a state. A vacuum is felt created in personal life because of failure to adhere to any strict norm of living, be it under a banner of religion or any other moral philosophy.

Dwindling Influence of Religion in Personal Life

Amitai Etzioni, a renowned socialist and influential in making communitarian movement popular, observes that while the essence of 1950s was deep sense of obligation, 1960s to 1980s saw growing temptation to eschew from social responsibilities. One main reason cited is dwindling influence of religion in personal life.

US Society during 1950s Marked by High Degree of Imposed Discipline and Moral Suasion

Etzioni did a study of communitarian trends in US dividing it under distinct time phases. He observed that US society during 1950s was marked by high degree of imposed discipline and moral suasion. He recalls a fact that it was compulsory for college students to take a number of prescribed classes and prescribed courses, which in his word ‘reflected unabashedly’ dominant set of values. Coercion, according to him, may be good at times, but can be destructive if applied too generously. In his view, low autonomy is not always a bad thing.

The Rise of Counter-Feminists to Fight against Excesses 

When it comes to laying foundation of a good family, women naturally takes a center stage. Feminism has been a successful movement over past decades which liberated women of many restrictions in their family and social life and gave them equal rights to men. Despite this, there are many contemporary issues such as abortion, child care that are unique to women and cannot be addressed in terms of equal rights for men and women. Huge success of women-rights activist through legal rulings led to so called counter-feminists such as Phyllis Schlafly fighting for against its excesses. The aim was to instill some form of order in family and justice for children who are victims of neglect of their parents due to divorce, indifference, or any such reason. This movement (movement by counter feminists) is labeled by many feminists as communitarian conservatism.

The new communitarian movement perhaps seeks to moderate aspirations of extreme socialists and prods those who are too individualistic in their personal life to take a family and community approach. By putting stress on moral responsibility of each individual in society, it appears that goal of current communitarian movement is to address some of excesses of human behavior which has made personal, family, and social life of many of modern citizens miserable in qualitative terms.

Experiences of close community in many Asian countries show how rigid their family and society became over time. There was little room for flexibility and society was intolerant to other religion or culture. There were few rights for women, who were exploited in the name of maintaining good family and good community. Children were brainwashed to follow tradition.

No Thin Line of Difference Between Justified Coercion by Communitarian Leaders and Excessive Coercion

There is, however, no thin line of difference between prescribed justified coercion by communitarian leaders like Etzioni and excessive coercion. It is feared that if parents start taking too proactive role in bringing children, the very interest might be counterproductive. It may curtail individual freedom of a child to grow and thrive in realistic ways. Western people are after all known and appreciated for being independent-minded.

Amish Community Model: Against for Diversity

One concept of community as perceived by ordinary laymen is depicted through Amish community in the movie ‘The Witness,’ directed by Peter Weir, 20th Century Fox. The Amish have their descent ancestral roots to Switzerland of the 18th century. They live in close group and avoid strangers. Farming is their main source of sustenance. As Christians, they believe they should live as brethren, that their faith is distinct from State, and that they are committed to live peacefully. They live a simple life and wear modest clothes. Sunday evening ‘sing’ is attended by all teenagers. Men do outside work like farming while women do household work like cooking. Amish believe that their faith calls for good work. Children receive education in Amish schools. In the movie, they are seen taking care of each other. People in this water-tight community do not like police. They do not follow rules of any other community because they see their own rules well and sufficient.

If this is one perception of community, then it is only natural to have some form of skepticism while examining if communitarian movement can adequately recognize, support, and promote moral and cultural diversity. After all, it is one thing to recognize, support, and promote moral and cultural values, which, as we could see, is found in plenty in the Amish community model; and other, when question of diversity comes in. The same in Amish community model is found to be against for diversity.

Imposing Strict Guidelines May Ultimately Take a Form of Religion

One of the goals of communitarian leaders is to form an ideology where people adopt moral ethics in their day-to-day life without religious discourse. But any strict guidelines which call in adopting good ethics may ultimately take a form of religion; even in a way of extreme religion which does not recognize any religion, as we see in case of socialism and communism in many countries empirically. If communitarian movement gets huge popularity, it is doubtful whether it can resist that trend.

Risk of Dictatorship When Intermixed with Politics and Economics

Giving importance to individual satisfaction and personal autonomy is important; otherwise, there will be tendency on part of communitarian leaders to dictate their own philosophy, which at some point, might restrict society to exercise diversity in thoughts, religion, and everything which such communitarian leaders will not be comfortable with. Empirically, this is found true with erstwhile USSR, which was formed on huge hopes of founding a big community where community goals will take precedence over individual interests. Over time, it ruthlessly sanctioned practice of religion and any philosophy which stood against its perception of ideal community. When intermixed with politics and economics, this has been a problem with traditional communitarian movements. Gradually, focus shifts on dictating ordinary people in community.

Communitarian Movement Overlaps with Other Initiatives in Society

The communitarian movement often overlaps with other initiatives in society such as welfare and applied ethics. Philosophers such as Tony Fitzpatrick have tried to explore vivid practical problems through it such as how ethical theories can be relevant to social policy in a welfare community. The economic concept of welfare state is not new. The same age old concept of welfare state is approached by many philosophers in community setup, making a case for good family and personal satisfaction to all its members. While communitarian leaders address many feminist issues keeping it under context of a good family, others like Johanna Brenner argue that they must be set in political and economic context.

Future Possibility of Community-Based Social Work in an International Context

After judging communitarian movement today and Labor’s distinct ways to project the welfare state in United Kingdom, many predict a future possibility of community-based social work in an international context. Community as a basis for social work has found renewed vigor with popularization of this movement. Community is seen as a point of care and support as well as conflict and discrimination. If one stretches concept of community, it can be all embracing from welfare of a single family to whole nation. The movement has suggestions on ways to improve family life, tackle feminist issues, protect rights of children, rights of mentally and physically challenged, and so on. This, however, makes its doctrine rather some form of wishful thinking than focused few practicable things that can be done and delivered.

Talking about 'Good Community': A Gimmick to Win Audience and Gain Votes?

For many political leaders, talking about ‘good community’ is just a gimmick to win audience and gain votes. We see in United Kingdom that this has become a battleground for its political parties. It is important to discern facts from rhetoric without which this term can be open to lose interpretation and not help serve any meaningful community reform. For instance, the following Blair’s speech appears in its tone yet another of likes that he was used to while building a case for going to war in Iraq: “At the heart of my beliefs is the idea of community. I don’t just mean the villages, towns and cities in which we live. I mean that our fulfillment as individuals lies in a decent society of others. My argument to you today is that the renewal of community is the answer to the challenges of a changing world.”

Independent Standing Contested and Accused of Being Non-Inclusive

Whether communitarian movement has any independent standing or is it just a repeat of basic moral lessons that children have been taught during their primary classes over the years can be open to debate for anyone. What we see as ideals for good community in Scotland, Wales, and Norway as cited by many communitarian leaders is perhaps result of high level of refinement on part of citizens through a long history that started with the renaissance. It could be predicted to be non-inclusive because anyone who will not be seen ‘good’ in this model will be left out of its benefits. If a state gives incentive to so-called ‘good people’ in community, it will obviously indirectly penalize those who do not match its version of definition. The fact that such countries have given asylum to political refugees and political prisoners may also be because of vested interests.

Also, many of notions put forward by communitarian leaders are fuzzy and cannot be taken without a grain of salt. For instance, intense obsession of Etzioni with US society before 1950s and sarcasm for decades that follow till 1990s appears to be a personal way of viewing things that old days were good days. The fact of the matter is that over the years US society has become more open, more diverse, and more receptive to new culture. If communitarian leaders have objection to that, then this may be because of some form of nostalgia: returning to old days where Church visit was an integral part of living. Communitarian leaders are not comfortable with mainstream economic culture of too much stress on individualism and Spencerism. They usually suggest a middle path. But this is nothing new.

Serving to Make a Case for Good Family and Good Community; Citizen Journalism and Disinterested Scrutiny Should Stop the Movement Taking Conservative Route

There is no doubt that communitarian movement has become popular over the last decade or so. One can appreciate present communitarian movement for targeting against excessive liberty that made life of many of today's citizens miserable. Right now, movement broadly is not geared on changing any political structure. Repeated association of western philosophers like John Mcmurray, Tony Blair, and Christian socialism with this movement does, however, raise concern whether it is just that limited in scope or crossing its limit. Will it be another western crusade to revive its past culture which has been threatened by influx of mass arrival of immigrants over the years? This may be an exaggerated fear today. So long as it induces people for good moral behavior, there is little to be intimidated by it per se. Right now, it appears that communitarian movement is actually serving to make a case for good family and good community under a secular setup. New-age citizen journalism and disinterested scrutiny should stop the movement taking any conservative route that makes it vulnerable to faults like the one evident from the erstwhile USSR experience.

References

1. Blair, T 2000, Speech to the Women’s Institutes’ Triennial General Meeting, June 7, 2000.

2. Brenner, J 2006, Women and the Politics of Class, Aakar Books.

3. Etzioni, A 1995, The Spirit of Community, London: Fontana.  

4. Fitzpatrick, T 2008, Applied Ethics and Social Problems: Moral Questions of Birth, Society and Death, Bristol: Policy Press.

5. Fitzpatrick, T 2001, Welfare Theory:  An Introduction, Palgrave Macmillan.

6. Hale, S 2002, ‘Professor Macmurray and Mr. Blair: The Strange Case of the Communitarian Guru that Never Was’. Accessed on 30 October 2009 from http://www.amitaietzioni.org/documents/2002ProfessorMacmurray.pdf.

7. Johnson, CE 1999, ‘Emerging Perspectives in Leadership Ethics’ in selected proceedings from the 1999 annual conference of The International Leadership Association, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 22-24 October, 1999, The International Leadership Association. Accessed on 3 November 2009 from http://www.ila-net.org/publications/proceedings/1999/cjohnson.pdf.

8. Klein, DB 1994,‘Libertarianism as communitarianism,’ Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, Volume 44, Issue 12. Accessed on 3 November 2009 from  http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/libertarianism-as-communitarianism.

9. Miller, D 1990, Market state and community, Oxford University Press.

10. Pierson, C and Castles, FG 2006, The Welfare State Reader, Polity Press, Cam- bridge.

11. Popple, K and Stepney, P 2008, Social Work and the Community: A Critical Framework for Practice, Palgrave Macmillan.

12. Prideaux, S 2002, ‘From organizational theory to the new communitarianism of Amitai Etzioni’, Canadian Journal of Sociology Wntr. Accessed on 3 November 2009 from http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:2ubHboZpA1gJ:dspace.wrlc.org/bitstream/1961/1407/1/From%2520organisational%2520theory%2520to%2520the%2520new%2520communitarianism%2520of%2520Amitai%2520Etzioni,%2520U.%2520of%2520Alberta,%25202002.doc+reflected+unabashedly,+Etzioni,+the+spirit+of+community,+reference&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in

13. Scott, S 2000, ‘The People's Republic of Yoker: A case study of tenant management in Scotland,’ Journal of Co-operative Studies Vol. 33:1 (No 98) April 2000. Accessed on 3 November, 2009 from http://www.co-opstudies.org/Journal/April%2000/suzie_scott_article.htm.

14. Spicker, P 2008, An Introduction to Social Policy. Accessed on 3 November, 2009 from http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/publicpolicy/introduction/society.htm.

15. The Amish: history, beliefs, practices, conflicts, etc, The Religious Tolerance. Org, Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Accessed on 3 November, 2009 from http://www.religioustolerance.org/amish.htm.

16. The Original Counter-Feminist 2007, Hawaiian Libertarian, November 2007. Accessed on 30 October 2009 from http://hawaiianlibertarian.blogspot.com/2007/11/original-counter-feminist.html.

17. The Witness (1985). Directed by Peter Weir, 20th Century Fox.

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