Patrick Vessey - 10 October 2008

Amitai Etzioni is sociologist and prolific author. His work has been embraced by political and business leaders around the globe, and his communitarian creed guides much of our public debate today — albeit that it is rarely spoken of openly.

As the label suggests, communitarianism is a belief in the power and importance of community. But it’s not a belief in natural community, that which forms spontaneously from our everyday interactions. When Thatcher famously remarked that there is no such thing as society, she wasn’t saying that society didn’t exist, but that it isn’t the fundamental building block: individual human beings are. These individuals then naturally come together to form changing communities; of course, that too is the position of libertarians everywhere.

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Tags: Communitarianism, Etzioni

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