Communitarianism

Historical Perspective

The earliest proponents of communitarian thinking include Mo Tze (a Chinese philosopher, ca 479–399 BC) and Aristotle (384–322 BC). Mo Tze criticized Confucian teachings for sacrificing genuine reciprocity for [Page 133]the sake of preserving rigid hierarchies. For Mo Tze, people could not be expected to put up with conceding more resources and privileges to an elite on the ground that it would maintain order. Not only would such asymmetric divisions breed tensions that would stoke disorder, a truly sustainable form of social stability could not be secured without people co-operating with each other on mutually acceptable terms. Mohist philosophy therefore requires all social actions to be judged by the test of mutuality—one should bring about a state of affairs affecting others if and only if one is prepared to accept the equivalent state of affairs being brought to bear on oneself. Strong communities, on this model, are built on having members ready to support one another on the understanding that any support given would be reciprocated.

Aristotle's communitarian ideas stem from his opposition to the Platonic tendency to privilege abstract uniformity over the diverse experiences of actual social life. He objected to Plato's conception of an entire community as a singly organic entity, with its many parts being mere subordinates to the ‘mind’ represented by the ruling elite. In contrast, he viewed communities as composed of autonomous citizens who had to constantly deliberate and review what they had in common and how they could best pursue their shared interests. What was good for a community could only emerge from the lived experiences of the people concerned and not be defined by some absolute metaphysical idea in isolation.

The demands for co-operation on equal terms and for social prescriptions to be grounded empirically on what people actually experience were to be notably fused in nineteenth and early twentieth century Anglo-American civic activism. It began with the adaptation of Robert Owen's ideas in the development of worker and community co-operatives—the characterization of which led to the coining of the term communitarian. Communities could improve themselves by being liberated from socio-economic constraints which had hitherto held people back from making a greater contribution to the common good. By the turn of the century, communitarian-minded liberals such as L. T. Hobhouse in the UK and John Dewey in the USA were applying their social and epistemological critiques to debates regarding the participatory opportunities in schools, the workplace and public institutions in general. Their shared premise is that a thoroughly democratic culture would empower people to participate in shaping the decisions that affect their communities, increasing the likelihood of those decisions responding to the needs of the communities and building trust and confidence in their collective endeavours.

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