WHAT COMMUNITARIANISM IS 48

COMMUNITARIANISM BREAKS THE RULES OF EXISTING DOGMATIC THINKING

COMMUNITARIANISM IS NEITHER RIGHT NOR LEFT, BUT A BALANCE BETWEEN RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITARIAN POLICY STUDIES, 2000; The Communitarian Vision http://www.gwu.edu/~icps/vision.html // acs-EE2001

In contrast to conventional "right" or "left" approaches to social policy, communitarians emphasize the need for a balance between rights and responsibilities. Communitarians believe that strong rights presume strong responsibilities and that the pendulum of contemporary society has swung too far in the direction of individual autonomy at the expense of individual and social responsibility. One key to solving contemporary America’s social problems is replacing our pervasive "rights talk" with "responsibility talk."

COMMUMITARIANISM KNOWS THERE WILL NEVER BE COMPLETE AGREEMENT ON ALL IDEAS, BUT THERE WILL BE PARTICIPATION ABOUT THOSE IDEAS WHICH MAY LEAD TO CHANGE

ROBERT N. BELLAH, professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, 1995-96, A Defense of "Democratic Communitarianism" The Responsive Community, Volume 6, Issue 1, Winter 1995/96 http://www.gwu.edu/~icps/bellah.html // acs-EE2001

But this reformulation leads to a further problem. Those who think of community as a form of Gemeinschaft, as well as their liberal critics, tend to think consensus about values and goals must be complete or nearly complete. Is such complete consensus realistic, or even desirable, in modern societies?

The answer, of course, is no. Yet this lack of unanimity needn’t create problems for supporters of community. While community-shared values and goals do imply something more than procedural agreement–they do imply some agreements about substance–they do not require anything like total or unarguable agreement. A good community is one in which there is argument, even conflict, about the meaning of the shared values and goals, and certainly about how they will be actualized in everyday life. Community is not about silent consensus; it is a form of intelligent, reflective life, in which there is indeed consensus, but where the consensus can be challenged and changed–often gradually, sometimes radically–over time.

COMMUNITARIANISM TOLERATES CULTURAL DIFFERENCES BUT REJECTS GENOCIDE, TORTURE, ETHNIC CLEANSING, AND MURDER OR IMPRISONMENT OF POLITICAL OPPONENTS

PHILIP SELZNICK, professor emeritus of law and sociology at the School of Law, University of California at Berkeley, 1996; Social Justice: A Communitarian Perspective, The Responsive Community, Volume 6, Issue 4, Fall 1996, http://www.gwu.edu/~icps/selznick.html // acs-EE2001

Third, each perspective must accept some limits. Advocates of universal human rights should limit their claims, especially enforceable claims, to baseline imperatives, such as rejection of genocide, torture, ethnic cleansing, and murder or imprisonment of political opponents. Such essentials should not be confused with fully elaborated ideals of justice and democracy. The latter are more likely to reflect distinctively Western values, and may well be insensitive to cultural diversity.

COMMUNITARIANISM REJECTS BOTH CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND RADICAL MULTICULTURALISM

First, we can reject the extremes of radical multiculturalism, which would fragment society, and of cultural imperialism, which is indifferent or hostile to local sources of identity and authenticity.