Quotes and Excerpts - Reinventing Government

What the Communitarians Stand For

Compiled by Niki Raapana, revised 3/04/05


Communitarianism (Idea and Movement in politics) - "With the demise of true socialism as a viable intellectual force, communitarianism is now the most active philosophical opposition to libertarianism. Communitarianism is usually presented in a vague terms, but it is probably best understood as a mild form of collectivism or "democratic socialism." From the The Ism Book

"The theory is based on a two-dimensional political grid that rejects the one-dimensional, liberal-conservative spectrum. It’s explained in detail on a Web site Janda created, www.idealog.org, which also offers a self-test to determine where you fall on the grid. Janda has found that the average American voter is a communitarian, yet it’s the only category that doesn’t have its own political party. He also saw many similarities between communitarian views and the Third Way."

     'New Democrats' offer moderates their version of 'compassionate conservatism' by Matthew DeFour, Northwestern University (also home to ABCD).


In Their Own Words - The Communitarian Network

"The Communitarian Network is a coalition of individuals and organizations who have come together to shore up the moral, social, and political environment. We are a nonsectarian, nonpartisan, transnational association.... The Communitarian Network investigates issues and policies such as the balance between rights and responsibilities in society, community justice, multiculturalism, the community's moral voice, and developing global society."

"Communitarian thinking is not an American import. Its roots sprout from ancient Greece and the Old and New Testaments. (I was trained by Martin Buber in Jerusalem.) While each society must evolve its own communitarian answers, the challenges are similar. Man and woman do not live by bread alone; it is unwise to believe that all we need is economic rehabilitation. We require our daily acts to be placed into a context of transcendent meaning and their moral import made clear."

         262. "Nation in need of community values" by Amitai Etzioni in The London Times (February 20, 1995), posted at the Communitarian Network.

 

"We establish for the moment a new world order. 11 September 2001 everything changed."
          Amitai Etzioni [the founder of American Communitarianism] on July 26, 2003 in an interview with Afgan Mania in Germany.

 

Dr. Amitai Etzioni is quoted in the article, "Needed: Catchword For Bush Ideology; 'Communitarianism' Finds Favor":

Officials said they see the program as an ambitious successor to the "thousand points of light," the private efforts to solve public problems that Bush's father saluted in his 1988 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. In office, Bush's father conferred a Daily Point of Light Award. Strategists in the new Bush administration recommend that "rather than officially designating Communities of Character, use heroes to tell the story."

Bush aides are researching such options as encouraging public service announcements that salute the community work of movie stars and opinion leaders, and working with news organizations to develop "profiles in character" about worthy citizens.

The project is built on the communitarian philosophy, which aims to bolster the foundations of civil society -- including families, schools and neighborhoods -- and foster a commitment to the welfare of the community.

Amitai Etzioni, a George Washington University sociologist who founded the communitarian movement in 1990 and has been consulted by the Bush administration, said the plans reflect "the better Bush." But Etzioni said the White House would have to be subtle in its approach for the plans to be successful.

"We are all exposed to a wide variety of moral voices -- the media, Hustler, corporations," Etzioni said. "It is part of the job of the president to add his voice, as long as it is exhortation, not legislation. It's one thing to tell what you think. It's another thing to shove it down their throat. That's what they do in Iran."
(Dana Milbank (The Washington Post, February 1, 2001)

 

See also: Communitarianism Explained, and The Just Third Way: Basic Principles of Economic and Social Justice by Norman G. Kurland, President, Center for Economic and Social Justice, Presented at the Fifth Annual Conference of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), Wyndham Washington Hotel, Washington, D.C., May 28-29, 2004.

Intentional Community: An Index of Resources at Progressive Living.org.
 


In Stanford's Encylopedia of Philosophy

The Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy explains how it evolved: "Modern-day communitarianism began in the upper reaches of Anglo-American academia in the form of a critical reaction to John Rawls landmark 1971 book A Theory of Justice. Drawing primarily upon the insights of Aristotle and Hegel, political philosophers such as Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Sandel, Charles Taylor and Michael Walzer disputed Rawls assumption that the principal task of government is to secure and distribute fairly the liberties and economic resources individuals need to lead freely chosen lives." (Note: Aristotle used logic, Hegel distorted logic, and Marx expanded on Hegel's distortion.)


Political communitarianism

The Six Waves of Communitarianism: A History by A. Allen Butcher:

1st Wave: 1600s and 1700s: Spititual and authoritarian; German/Swiss Pietist and English Separatist.
2nd Wave: 1840s: Secular: Anarchist Socialist, Associationist, Mutualist Cooperative, Owenite, Perfectionist. Religious: Christian Socialist, Adventist.
3rd Wave: Crested in the 1890s:(50 years after the 2nd wave) Hutterite, Mennonite, Amish, and first Georgist single-tax colony.
4th Wave: 1930s:(40 years after the 3rd wave) New Deal Green-Belt towns, Catholic Worker, Emissary, School of Living.
5th Wave: 1960s: (30 years after the 4th wave) Peace/ecology/feminism.
6th Wave: 1990s: Cohousing, ecovillages, various networks.

Falconist Party created in 2003.

Partial list of people associated with the Project For The New American Century.

Thousands of communitarian programs and laws have been introduced into American communities, and hundreds of elected representatives embrace the new ideology. Communitarian law is the foundation for international communitarian sustainable development programmes under U.N. Local Agenda 21.

Communitarianism linked to COMMUNISM

"The Socialist Alliance programme is the foundation upon which everything else is built, including in time our exact organisational forms and constantly shifting tactics. The programme links our continuous and what should be all-encompassing agitational work with our ultimate aim of a communitarian, or communist, system. Our programme thus establishes the basis for agreed action and is the lodestar, the point of reference, around which the voluntary unity of the Socialist Alliance is built and concretised. Put another way, the programme represents the dialectical unity between theory and practice."

     Posted by Towards a common Socialist Alliance programme, Weekly Worker 368, January 25 2001. See also: 5. The transition to the communitarian system in the same issue of Great Britain Communist Party's Weekly Worker.

 


Communitarianism linked to the THIRD WAY:

[Niki's observations:] Communitarians balance national laws against the undefinable notion of an international "community." It eliminates U.S. Constitutional Law. U.S. law protects individuals from the state and the majority. Communitarians expand government authority over individuals and grant unrestricted power over individuals to a minority of malcontents. Also referred to as Civil Society (a freemason term) and The Third Way (a Marxist Platform), the entire philosophy is based on vague notions of what constitutes a "good society."

   The key ingredient to all communitarian thinking is the use of undefinable words and phrases, Marxist concepts of morality, and conflicting "values." As with everything based in Marxist rhetoric, communitarians change their strategy and propaganda depending on the targeted nationals.
 

Progressive Policy Institute - Overview and Description. "As the think tank for the Democratic Leadership Council, the Progressive Policy Institute’s (PPI) mission “arises from the belief that America is ill-served by an obsolete left-right debate that is out of step with the powerful forces re-shaping our society and economy.” Furthermore, PPI states that it “advocates a philosophy that adapts the progressive tradition in American politics to the realities of the Information Age and points to a ‘third way’... PPI is a project of the Third Way Foundation..."

The Politics of Power: a Life History of the Party System explains the Third Way in Great Britain.

 

Thomas Aquinas may have coined the term The Third Way in the 13th century, but today Communitarianism is the most powerful legal and justice theory in the world. Hidden from the average person, it's rarely mentioned by the mainstream press. As a combination of the ideals of the farthest right and the farthest left, the philosophy is fully exportable and is also the basis for the reinvented governments of Afghanistan and Iraq. It looks like the French are following Third Way Think Tanks. We wonder how many educated Iraqis are left who have a historical awareness of the devastating new development of such an old obscure idea. World Wide Words confirms the term is not new, and helps explain how long communitarians have practiced ways to blur and confuse the lines between all political ideologies. There must be conflict and confusion to create consensus in a new (and constantly evolving) global government system.

Communitarianism and the future of social policy by Gordon Hughs, The Open University."...in contrast to previous overviews on national and international trends in communitarian social control which point to a new penetrative totalitarianism, this discussion suggests that local crime prevention/community safety initiatives in the United Kingdom also at times draw on, and create, agendas and projects, in the Gramscian sense, which are beyond the control of the reactionary penalism of central government....

    "Some conceptual and political challenges for a radical communitarian agenda on social justice and inclusion. Having given a specific illustration of how communitarian ideas may be incorporated into tangible policy initiatives at the local state level by means of the example of community safety, I now wish to address change tack and air some of theajor challenges, conceptual and political, which face the radical communitarianroject around community empowerment and social inclusion. In no particular order of priority, special attention will be given to the role of the state and economy in radical communitarianism....

     "...we may wish to be wary about putting our faith in either civil society or community as benign realms populated by progressive alliances and agents. It is likely that the social worlds we inhabit will continue to have its ‘heavies’ and reactionary forces. Thus the acceptance of such differences and probability of continuing struggles between opposing groups needs to be openly acknowledged in any radical communitarian agenda on social justice and the common good."


The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democratic Society
(book reviews) by John Fonte, National Review, March 10, 1997: "THERE is no doubt that the philosophical outlook called communitarianism has influenced politics in the West. Some of its major tenets have been advanced by Bill Clinton in America and Tony Blair in Britain. Described by its promoters as a "movement" (it's not: it has no popular support or mass membership), communitarianism is a public philosophy developed by a small coterie of academics who have attempted to recast American liberal-Left and European social-democratic ideologies into a new "centrist" mold."

   

Progressive Policy Institute - Overview and Description. "As the think tank for the Democratic Leadership Council, the Progressive Policy Institute’s (PPI) mission “arises from the belief that America is ill-served by an obsolete left-right debate that is out of step with the powerful forces re-shaping our society and economy.” Furthermore, PPI states that it “advocates a philosophy that adapts the progressive tradition in American politics to the realities of the Information Age and points to a ‘third way’... PPI is a project of the Third Way Foundation..."

The Politics of Power: a Life History of the Party System explains the Third Way in Great Britain.

 


Where does the Communitarian Network stand on religion? (Update Oct 3, 2005)

"Pope John Paul's great vision of communitarianism and a New Global Order has yet to receive the recognition it deserves in furthering the understanding that humanity is built on religious values, without which transformations in totalitarian regimes would have been impossible. The essence of communitarianism, as put forth by the Vatican, consists of seeking middle ground between Marxist collectivism and rigid individualism and capitalism.

     "Phillips traces the history of communitarianism through Aristotelian and Judeo-Christian writings, clarifying the proper function of the community in helping individuals help themselves by mobilizing church resources and countering anti-religious movements such as Nazism and communism. Communitarianism presents an encouraging universal notion of freedom, transcending the one-sided stances of Marxism and libertarian capitalism and promoting the vision of a unified human destiny."

     "Communitarianism, the Vatican, and the New Global Order" by Robert L. Phillips, Carnegie Council.org.

 

Here's an interesting side to the Communitarian Network we at the ACL haven't spent much time looking into. The Relationship of Religion to Moral Education in the Public Schools(1) Prepared by Warren A. Nord and Charles C. Haynes.

It appears members of the Communitarian Network have come out in force against a group of Christians called The National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools who designed a study course that actually uses the Bible as the textbook. Public School Bible Course Under Attack By Josh Montez, August 3, 2005. The Communitarian "religious-left" opponents don't disagree with the "religious-right" that the Bible can be legally studied in public schools (as long as it's not used to "indoctrinate"), the progressive communitarians just think that Bible students should study the Bible without using a Bible to study it. They also think they should be the ones to control the curriculum.

What interest does the Communitarian Network have in teaching their own version of a Bible Curriculum in American schools? What is the Texas Freedom Network, "a mainstream voice to counter the religious right"? Why does a keyword search for the term communitarian show nothing about it on their website? Their "about" page explains: "Founded in 1995, the Texas Freedom Network is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization of more than 23,000 religious and community leaders. Based in Austin, the Texas Freedom Network acts as the state's watchdog, monitoring far-right issues, organizations, money and leaders." Communitarianism is not nonpartisan (it's the Third Way) and as we've proven, it's definitely not "grassroots." So if they're not communitarians, why is the Communitarian Network featuring their research?

"Twisting Truth through Group Consensus: Using the Bible to promote interfaith dialogue and common ground" explores the connections between Charles Haynes and the United Nations and the tricky way the communitarians are enlisting Christian supporters. We'll be getting back to this whole religious aspect very shortly... it deserves a lot more attention. A lot of the links she used are gone but she provides some very easy to understand charts that compare the new global religion to the Bible."
(Berit Kjos, 2001)


What is Racial Communitarianism?

Daughters of France, Daughters of Allah by Marie Brenner in Vanity Fair, April 2004: "A new code word for anti-Semitism has entered the language— "communautarisme"—and Ramadan has been instrumental in its spread. ..."

"The New World Order, Incorporated: The Rise of Business and the Decline of the Nation State," by Viven A. Schmidt, Daedalus, Vol. 124, no. 2 (Spring 1995). "WHEN GEORGE BUSH ANNOUNCED the beginning of a new world order, he had in mind a world in which democratic governments would together keep peace in the world and make it possible for everyone to be free to prosper in a liberalizing international economy."

The Individual and the Community by Tibor R. Machan Published in The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty - September 1991. "Communitarians wish to place community and individual on a collision course, saying there is some kind of balance that is needed between the rights of individuals and the rights of the community. But if we consider that 'community' means simply a lot of other people than oneself, this makes for majority rule. And if we consider that such other people usually leave it to a few who will speak out in their behalf, we will have a few community representatives dictating to the rest of us what we must do and what our 'responsibilities' are."

The New Democrats are Third Way communitarians. Here's the list of New Dems in American politics. President Bill Clinton embraced Communitarian values and was elected on a Communitarian platform (although few Americans know this about him). The New Covenant: Responsibility and Rebuilding the American Community, Remarks to Students at Georgetown University by Governor Bill Clinton on October 23, 1991.

We post updates on Senator Bayh's Third Way Senate bipartisan group at Bayh Watch.

The Third Way enjoys favor from both parties. (This partly explains why Democrats like Hilary Clinton and John Kerry support exporting violent overthrowing of foreign governments, and Bush and leading Right Wing Republicans support formerly Leftist programs like Community Service Laws and Faith-Based Initiatives. Senator Bayh's "new" Third Way bipartisan group includes Dem and Republican Senators, and it expands daily. Most American Mayors have embraced Communitarian values. We will experience more confusion as to what each party represents as American voters get closer to the next election, and to the final global solution.)

Clinton-Gore Rebuilding Communities
Bush Rebuilding Communities


Americans unknowingly adopted the "softer face of communism" under DLC candidate William Jefferson Clinton in 1992.

Clinton and the Promise of Communitarianism (1991), by William Galston, listed by the Communitarian Network's bibliography.

I or We?, by Michael D'Antonio, Mother Jones, May-June 1994:

"Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros and White House domestic adviser William Galston have come out in favor of the communitarian agenda, and Sen. Bill Bradley goes so far as to say that communitarianism "promises to shape a new political era in much the way progressivism reshaped our nation a century ago..... As a consequence, people are beginning to think critically about what it means to translate such fuzzy, feel-good rhetoric into action.

"This is the Clinton administration's version of 'family values,' something vague and moralistic that everyone supports but no one seems to be able to define," says Professor Walker. "I suspect that what the communitarians, and especially Etzioni, really want is to be influential with the White House. If that's an accomplishment, then they may already be achieving something."[emphasis added]


President George Bush Jr. carries on the communitarian torch his father carried before him

Bush Plans Values-Based Initiative to Rev Up Agenda by Mike Allen, Washington Post Staff Writer, July 29, 2001. The Washington Post, posted by GWU:

"'There is potential for Communities of Character to be a four-year project for the White House that helps define the presidency," one document says. "There seems to be a consensus that a renewal of shared values in this country is needed....

     "Bush aides are researching such options as encouraging public service announcements that salute the community work of movie stars and opinion leaders, and working with news organizations to develop "profiles in character" about worthy citizens.
     "The project is built on the communitarian philosophy, which aims to bolster the foundations of civil society -- including families, schools and neighborhoods -- and foster a commitment to the welfare of the community.
     "Amitai Etzioni, a George Washington University sociologist who founded the communitarian movement in 1990 and has been consulted by the Bush administration, said the plans reflect 'the better Bush.' But Etzioni said the White House would have to be subtle in its approach for the plans to be successful."


From Merriam-Webster.com

Main Entry: com·mu·ni·tar·i·an : of or relating to social organization in small cooperative partially collectivist communities

From Wikipedia the Free Encylopedia: "Communitarianism as a philosophy began in the late 20th century, opposing aspects of liberalism and capitalism while advocating phenomena such as civil society. Not necessarily hostile to liberalism in the contemporary American sense of the word, communitarianism rather has a different emphasis, shifting the focus of interest toward communities and societies and away from the individual. Communitarians believe that the value of community is not sufficiently recognized in liberal theories of justice."


A Few Good Communitarian Overviews

Communitarianism at the informal education hompage. Philosophical communitarianism: The various writers that are grouped together as communitarianism may well have expressed some disquiet about being so labelled - and some of the conclusions drawn by others concerning their position, but it is possible to discern a distinctive anti-individualism in much of their work. ...  Ethically we need to look to the social individual or collective and the significance of reciprocity, trust, solidarity etc. (what has sometimes been discussed as social capital).

    "... it is necessary 'to interpret and refine values that are immanent in the ways of life of really living groups - societies, communities' ....
    "Communitarians take issue with the idea that the individual stands and should stand in direct unmediated relationship with the state and with society. This is an idea that flows through a great deal of contemporary legal and political thought in northern countries....
    "Communitarians promote a distinctive set of values. They value community itself... They will also argue for debate and dialogue about what constitutes the significant values in a particular society...

The Everything Expert by Robert S. Boynton, June 26, 2003, posted by The Nation. Very nice overview of communitarianism and some background on Amitai Etzioni. Interesting perspective on why the author thinks it never caught on. Nothing here about communitarian laws, policies or programs.

"Communitarians conceive of society as a three-legged stool, held up by the forces of the state, the market and, yes, the community. They are skeptical of the rights-oriented, legalistic, interest-group politics of the liberal state. A precursor to the 'third way' movements of recent years, communitarians want to 'leapfrog the old debate between left and right and focus on the role of the community, culture, and virtues rather than on either the private sector or the government,' Etzioni writes."

Liberty and Community Online by Barry Fagin, Department of Computer Science, US Air Force Academy

Who are the New Communitarians, What do They Want, and Why Study Them? For the Course: Contemporary Issues in Western Social Thought, Master of Liberal Arts Colloquium, Washington University, Fall, 1993, by Greg Warnusz, who was "amused" to find his largely pro-communitarian paper at our Anti-Communitarian League website. We post all viewpoints on communitarianism at this site, and we especially appreciate academic views like his; they prove our point that communitarianism exists.

"Etzioni says the same thing more simply: a year of national service 'would act as a grand sociological mixer. At present, America provides few opportunities for shared experience and for developing shared values and bonds among people from different racial, class, and regional backgrounds."(13) He is also impressed with the possibilities the program has for inculcating a sense of civic responsibility in the young. It would give some an alternative to life in the streets and the steady temptation of crime....
    "The word 'communitarian' seems to have arisen in the late 1830's, when it designated the members who joined geographical communities established 'to put into practice communistic or socialistic theories.'"

Notes on Communitarianism University of Missouri, Philosophy 213, R.N. Johnson. "Communitarians argue that we should prefer a politics of the common good to liberalismís neutrality with respect to any conceptions of the good. The "common good" for liberals is an optimal combination of preferences, each of which is given equal consideration, within the limits of respecting each person's rights.

John Macmurray, Writers Try to Describe the Radical Middle. This is the MOST comprehensive website devoted to all the variations on Third Way thinking we've found. What a wonderful collection of quotes that help define the entire Third Way political evolution of ideas that will bring us to the final Hegelian synthesis. Their writer's list includes many writers the ACL has quoted or referred to on the ACL site. The Radical Middle Newsletter's Great Radical Middle links and review of the world's 21st Century Political Manifestos totally backs up the ACL argument.


See What is the Hegelian Dialectic? By Niki Raapana and Nordica Friedrich

See the entire collection of quotes and explanations at: http://nord.twu.net/acl/standfor.html

Note: While we agree with this analysis of communitarianism, we can't endorse all the views presented on this website.

See also Facilitating permanent social change and

Using Dissatisfaction (a crisis) for social transformation

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