Communitarianism
Can individuals be fully understood apart from the communities that formed them — and what do we owe to the communities without which our identities and values would be impossible?
Communitarianism emerged in the 1980s primarily as a critique of Rawlsian liberalism, associated with philosophers including Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Sandel, Charles Taylor, and Michael Walzer. Its central argument is that liberal political theory's picture of the self — as a free-floating individual who chooses values from behind a veil of ignorance — is philosophically mistaken and politically dangerous. Selves are fundamentally constituted by their communities, traditions, and relationships; our identities, values, and sense of what a good life looks like are formed within and through these attachments, not chosen independently of them. This has major implications for politics: the bonds of community, shared civic identity, and common goods are not obstacles to freedom but its preconditions.
Historical Context
Communitarianism crystallized as an intellectual movement in the 1980s in direct response to John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971), which the communitarians argued presented an untenable picture of the self and society. The movement had both philosophical and political dimensions: in the 1990s, Amitai Etzioni and others developed a civic communitarianism that sought to balance rights with responsibilities and rebuild civil society without the authoritarianism of the right or the radical individualism of the left. Communitarianism influenced Tony Blair's 'Third Way,' American debates about civic renewal, and continues to shape discussions of nationalism, multiculturalism, and the decline of social trust.
Key Ideas
- The self is 'encumbered': constituted by communal attachments and traditions, not prior to and independent of them
- Liberal neutrality is illusory: any political framework embodies and privileges particular conceptions of the good
- Communities and their practices are the sources of moral meaning and identity — not individual choice
- Civil society, local institutions, and intermediate associations are morally and politically essential
- Civic republicanism: democracy requires engaged citizens with shared identity and common purpose, not only rights-bearing consumers
- Moral vocabulary and standards are internal to practices and traditions; universal abstract principles are impoverished guides
- Social solidarity and the common good are legitimate political aims, not merely private preferences aggregated
Core Concepts
Sandel's concept: the self is always already constituted by particular attachments, histories, and communities; the liberal 'unencumbered self' who chooses values freely is a philosophical fiction
Not merely a voluntary association of individuals but a constitutive relationship: a community shapes who its members are, what they value, and what counts as a good life
The intermediate layer of associations between state and individual — families, churches, neighborhoods, professional guilds, civic organizations — through which community bonds and moral formation occur
Walzer's concept: goods have different social meanings in different communities, and justice requires that they be distributed according to their own internal logic rather than by a single universal metric
The view that freedom requires not merely freedom from interference (negative liberty) but active participation in self-governing communities with shared civic identity and purpose
Key Texts
- MacIntyre, After Virtue (1981)
- Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982)
- Taylor, Sources of the Self (1989)
- Walzer, Spheres of Justice (1983)
- Etzioni, The Spirit of Community (1993)
Where This Shows Up in Frameworks
Why This Shows Up in Frameworks
When a decision involves obligations to community, the erosion of shared institutions or civic bonds, or a conflict between individual preference and relational responsibility, communitarianism asks whether the framing is missing the communal goods and constitutive relationships that give the individual's choices their meaning.