Communitarianism: Philosophy, Thinkers & Concepts

Overview

Communitarianism is a political philosophy that emphasizes the priority of the community over the individual, the social constitution of the self, and the importance of the common good as a standard for political evaluation. Emerging in the 1980s as a critical response to the liberal political philosophy of John Rawls, communitarianism argues that liberalism's conception of the individual as a free and independent chooser is philosophically mistaken and politically harmful. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that communitarianism is not a single, unified theory but a family of positions united by a shared critique of liberal individualism and a commitment to the social and cultural conditions of human flourishing.

Historical Development

Communitarianism draws on intellectual resources that precede the modern liberal tradition. Aristotle's claim that the human being is a zoon politikon — a political animal — who can flourish only in the context of a political community is a foundational source. The Aristotelian tradition holds that the purpose of political life is the cultivation of virtue and the pursuit of the good life, not merely the protection of individual rights. This vision of politics as the education of character and the pursuit of the common good was displaced by the modern liberal emphasis on individual rights, consent, and the neutrality of the state.

G. W. F. Hegel provided another important source for communitarian thought. Hegel argued that individual freedom is realized through participation in the ethical life of the community — the family, civil society, and the state. The liberal conception of abstract, individual rights, Hegel argued, is incomplete without the concrete social institutions that give content and meaning to freedom.

The immediate context of the communitarian critique was the publication of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971) and the revival of liberal political philosophy that it inspired. Rawls's theory of justice as fairness, with its "original position" in which individuals choose principles of justice behind a "veil of ignorance" that deprives them of knowledge of their particular identities, seemed to communitarians to presuppose a radically disembodied and unsituated conception of the self.

Michael Sandel's Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982) provided the most powerful statement of the communitarian critique. Sandel argued that Rawls's original position presupposes a "unencumbered self" — a self that is prior to its ends and independent of its social and cultural attachments. But this conception of the self, Sandel argued, is incoherent. The selves we actually are are constituted by — not prior to — our attachments, commitments, and identities. We are not subjects who choose our ends; we are subjects who discover ourselves already engaged in relationships and commitments that give our lives meaning.

Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue (1981) offered a more radical critique. MacIntyre argued that the modern moral and political order is in a condition of grave disorder, a condition he traced to the failure of the Enlightenment project of justifying morality on the basis of universal reason. The moral fragments of this broken tradition are the source of contemporary moral disagreement. MacIntyre proposed a return to an Aristotelian tradition of virtue ethics, in which moral reasoning is situated within the practices and traditions of particular communities.

Charles Taylor developed the communitarian critique in a different direction. In Sources of the Self (1989) and The Ethics of Authenticity (1991), Taylor argued that the modern ideal of individual authenticity — the idea that each person has a unique way of being that they must discover and express — is not a rejection of the moral horizon of the modern world but a powerful expression of it. However, Taylor argued that the ideal of authenticity has been distorted by liberal individualism and consumer capitalism, and that a recovery of the social and dialogical conditions of identity — what he called the "politics of recognition" — is essential for the flourishing of modern individuals.

Michael Walzer developed a distinctive approach that emphasizes the plurality of social goods and the importance of shared meanings in the determination of justice. In Spheres of Justice (1983), Walzer argued that different social goods — money, office, education, health care, recognition — should be distributed according to different principles, and that these principles must be derived from the shared understandings of the community in which they are distributed.

Core Concepts

The Social Constitution of the Self

The central philosophical claim of communitarianism is that the self is socially constituted. We are not independent individuals who choose our ends and commitments; we are beings whose identities are formed by the communities, traditions, and relationships into which we are born. The liberal conception of the "unencumbered self" is a philosophical fiction.

The Priority of the Common Good

Communitarianism argues that the common good is not merely the sum of individual goods but a good that is genuinely shared and that makes individual flourishing possible. Political institutions should be judged by their contribution to the common good, not merely by their protection of individual rights.

The Critique of Liberal Neutrality

Liberalism claims that the state should be neutral between competing conceptions of the good life. Communitarians argue that this neutrality is impossible and undesirable. Every political community embodies a vision of the good life, and the attempt to achieve neutrality simply masks the domination of one particular vision of the good.

The Politics of Recognition

Taylor's concept of the politics of recognition argues that the identity of individuals and groups is shaped by the recognition or misrecognition they receive from others. A just society must recognize the distinct identities of its members and provide the conditions for their authentic self-development.

Key Thinkers

Michael Sandel (1953–) is the most influential communitarian critic of liberal political philosophy. His critique of the Rawlsian conception of the self and his defense of the priority of the common good have shaped the debate between liberalism and communitarianism.

Charles Taylor (1931–) is the most philosophically comprehensive of the communitarian thinkers. His work on the sources of the self, the politics of recognition, and the conditions of human flourishing is a major contribution to contemporary philosophy.

Alasdair MacIntyre (1929–) is the most radical of the communitarian thinkers. His critique of the modern moral order and his defense of an Aristotelian tradition of virtue ethics challenge the foundations of liberal political philosophy.

Michael Walzer (1935–) developed a distinctive communitarian approach to justice that emphasizes the plurality of social goods and the importance of shared meanings in the determination of just distributions.

Criticisms

Communitarianism has been criticized for its apparent conservatism and its potential to justify the oppression of individuals by the community. Critics argue that the appeal to the "shared understandings" of a community can be used to legitimize exclusion, discrimination, and the suppression of dissent. The communitarian critique of liberal neutrality, critics argue, can be used to justify the imposition of particular religious or moral views through state power. The Stanford Encyclopedia notes that communitarians have responded to these criticisms by emphasizing that their position is not a defense of any existing community but a critique of the deficiencies of liberal individualism and an argument for the importance of the social conditions of freedom and human flourishing.

Contemporary Relevance

Communitarian ideas have had a significant impact on contemporary political thought and practice. The communitarian critique of liberal individualism has influenced the development of the capabilities approach, the politics of recognition, and the theory of deliberative democracy. The concept of the common good has been revived in discussions of social justice, environmental policy, and the reform of democratic institutions. The Stanford Encyclopedia observes that the communitarian emphasis on the social and cultural conditions of freedom and human flourishing remains a vital corrective to the individualism of liberal political philosophy and a source of insight for thinking about the challenges of community, identity, and belonging in an increasingly globalized world.