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communitarianism

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communitarianism

a viewpoint on welfare issues that stresses common interests and common values arising from communal bonds. As such, communitarianism is opposed to purely individualistic conceptions of welfare. Communitarian conceptions have enjoyed resurgence recently as a reaction against the political ascendancy of conceptions of welfare based on crude market values. Communitarianism, however, is also sometimes associated with a romanticized cultural conservatism or with otherwise controversial ideas. For example, in his influential account of communitarianism, The Spirit of Community (1993), A. Etzioni suggests that the manufacture of new rights should be banned on the grounds that an ‘inflation of rights’ devalues more grounded moral claims.
Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000
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References in periodicals archive
"We also note with concern the over-generalised and communitarian bias of the discourses.
Specifically, Gago provides insight into how Bolivian labor recruiters and neoliberal structures subvert the Andean communitarian concepts of ch'ixi and ayni (a complex system of reciprocity common in the Andean highlands).
It also explores a lesser known Jewish underworld, and the way the very existence of Jewish mafias in the early twentieth century affected communitarian life.
SETTING THE SCENE: THE LIBERAL AND COMMUNITARIAN DEPICTIONS OF THE SELF
The two dominant themes of orthodox mainstream communitarian philosophy are first, that the individual rights promoted by traditional liberals need to be balanced with social responsibilities and second, autonomous individual selves do not exist in isolation but are shaped by the values and culture of communities.
At the Heritage Foundation in April, Lee delivered a communitarian manifesto of sorts entitled "What Conservatives Are For." He emphasized "that the true and proper end of political subsidiarity is social solidarity" and explained that his "vision of American freedom is of two separate but mutually reinforcing institutions: a free enterprise economy and a voluntary civil society."
In the end, Kennedy's interest in poverty resulted from a deeply held communitarian ideal and was "less a dramatic transformation than a steady political evolution, a process that began earlier than has been understood" (3).
I share much of the communitarian emphasis and values that Amitai Etzioni has capably expressed in numerous writings.
"Here I'll describe three corporate governance systems--Anglo-American, Communitarian, and Emerging Markets--and provide a comparison that you can use to recognize and evaluate differences in practice.
The communitarian critique of private property advanced by Christian anarchists is decidedly Marxist in tone.
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