Positive Aspects of Community and the Dangers of Fragmentation

This essay seeks to explain the premisses of the communitarian movement in the USA, and to respond to some of its principal critics. At the heart of the debate is the fundamental question of the proper balance between individual liberty and commitment to the common good. The solution to this could be a form of ‘responsive’ communitarianism which in some situations (such as the present-day USA) may argue for more community, and in others (such as contemporary China) may press for a better anchoring of individual rights. In his examination of the centrifugal forces which can be unleashed by the search for ever-more-exclusive forms of community, Etzioni argues that excessive insistence on self-determination can weaken countries seeking to establish democratic government and threaten democracy in countries which have already attained it.