I'm working on a project for my government class and I just need to define it. However, I want to know where it sits on the political spectrum since I've never heard of that term before 😅.
Also sub question, is communitarianism the same as socialism?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_LyMSNvbXQ
Apparently comunitarianism is just direct action.
I love that he figures out that Sandel is a communitarian but then goes to imply he's some sort of utilitarian because he entertains it in his introductory Justice course.
Also, gotta love that communitarianism, as a form of globalism, is "internationalist... cultural Marxist, and economically fascist."
(I don't know if this counts as bad philosophy but I figured it was worth a shot since he is apparently trying to talk about communitarianism.)
What do you think of communitarianism, communalism/localism, gift economy in light of the social doctrine of the church?
From what I have read:
- communitarianism is a political philosophy that emphizes the importance of the community in the life and proper development of the human being. In this sense it advocates for two things, first the preservation of these communities and their culture and second that these communities should have the power to decide their own fate. Different currents vary on more specific positions but there are two major contemporary catholic philosophers who are part of this school of thought: Charles Taylor and Alasdair McIntyre.
- communalism is a system developed by Murray Bookchin which in a nutshell advocates for the power to reside in the the local goverments (the commune, the city, the town, the municipality, the village) and for the nation-state to be a confederation of these local entities. It is deeply opposed to political and economic centralism.
- gift economy is a moneyless economic system in which goods are not traded but they are given without an explicit agreement. These gifts are a way to establish a long term reciprocal relationship betweeen different people or communities. In this sense economic and social ties are less differentiated than in a market system where you exchange the goods one instance at a time. A good example of how this works is the family. People usually help their family without expecting something in return (but knowing that they would do the same for you if you were in need). For comparison, in a market economy you exchange the goods in a more immediate manner and you don't expect something else after the agreed exchange is completed, so no long term relationship is established nor needed. Historically, this has been the way many communities and cultures have functioned and still do, the largest one being the Inca Empire in the XV century which operated in a combination of gift and command economies.
So far, after being reading and thinking about this topics I have come to the following conclusions:
- Communitarianism can take many different forms (and can even become cultural relativism). Nonetheless, viewing it from a catholic perspective, it makes sense that these communities have the power needed to preserve their way of living (so long as it does not go against natural law). It also resonates very well with subsidiarity and solidarity (because in smaller commmunities people na
... keep reading on reddit ➡Tomorrow Trump will cease to be president. What should our top priorities be during The Biden administration to pursue a more communitarian society?
If so, what would that society look like?
Easy to read as in I don't need any prior political philosophy knowledge like Rawls or anything like that.
Title
It's common to find people on the Internet simplify political ideologies in a way that a lot of people can understand, but sometimes that leads to misconceptions about certain things. For example, a lot of people will describe libertarians as "socially liberal and fiscally conservative." While this is true of many libertarians (for example, Gary Johnson has called himself socially liberal and fiscally conservative before), libertarians and liberals are socially liberal for different reasons.
Liberals are socially liberal because they believe that cultural inclusiveness produces the best results for society where everyone can work together. Libertarians are socially liberal because they don't like government intervention.
Sometimes when I speak with people on communitarianism, they'll simplify it to "socially conservative and fiscally liberal." However, is that really true? From what I know, communitarianism is just a broad ideology that states that society works best when everyone makes decisions together as a group and makes it their responsibility as an individual to care for the entire community. Because communitarianism emphasizes the community's efforts to better society, communitarians are generally perceived as fiscally liberal as they want the entire community to benefit, but also socially conservative at the same time because a community making decisions together can block an individual's ability to make their personal life decisions.
Just how libertarians aren't necessarily socially liberal, I believe communitarians aren't necessarily socially conservative. While communitarianism may hinder personal freedom in some regards, a communitarian can still hold socially progressive views. It's just that they think that the best way to promote socially progressive views is through community efforts where individuals all contribute to the community to make a decision.
I see a lot of overlap between these philosophies and have joined both r/communitarians and r/distributism. Are any of the rest of you fans of both ideas?
by Dr. Edward Younkins
Communitarians are a diverse group of philosophers and social and political activists who believe that the purpose of society is to uphold and sustain community life. If there is any unity in communitarian thought, it comes from its opposition to classical liberalism’s claim that attaining and maintaining freedom and justice should be the central and primary concern of the political order. Communitarians oppose the strict application of abstract and universal rules to persons who vary widely in their personal and social characteristics and circumstances in favor of personal justice and a legal framework that consists of particular laws and outcome-based justice being applied to specific persons or groups.
Communitarians argue that man basically is not a rights-bearing, property-seeking, individual, but rather is a social being who can only thrive in stable associations and communities. They state that the individual is a construction or invention that appeared late in human history, preceded by the community, without which he cannot exist. They are convinced that liberal public philosophy is destroying the social underpinnings of the “good society” and lament that most modern men fail to acknowledge the existence of, and the obligation to seek, a comprehensive common good that transcends one’s personal interests. They are united by their common fear that the realization that we are bound by shared purposes, values, traditions, and obligations is being replaced with an atomistic, Hobbesian individualism that upholds individual rights at the expense of camaraderie, social cohesion, and the pursuit of the common good. Communitarians complain that modern society has become a place of uncaring individualism, social disintegration, and amoral relativism where men elevate their personal interests above the common good.
Their conclusion tends to be that a return to past forms of community is both possible and morally desirable. Preferring to look backward, they reason that if we can find virtue in the past, then its attainment in the future would then be deemed possible. Heartened by this possibility, they enthusiastically promote an effort to restore the notion of responsibility and to establish a balance between both rights and responsibility and individual and community.
Foundations of Communitarianism
Communitarians draw inspiration from a variety of thinkers. From Plato comes the idea that the pol
... keep reading on reddit ➡Communitarianism emerged as a challenge to liberalism that says that we can't just focus on the rights of individuals, we also have to look at the big picture communal needs. Okay... and then it suddenly seems to jump to insisting that these community needs are not objective, but are defined by relativistic community standards and practices. Where does this leap come from?
Is there no common political philosophy that says we have to focus on big picture needs without adding in this relativistic caveat? Or is the assumption that some other philosophy already does this. Liberalism seems to be too individualistic, and political utilitarianism seems to presuppose a total big picture sense that would be incompatible with certain ideas of community unkess we assume that the community should only be viewed by maximizing value.
Is there a reason that communitarianism is relativistic? Is it because similar to how the individual sets their own goals in life, it is viewing different communities like individuals in this way who get to define their own collective goals? If so, what philosophy would be closest to saying that the big picture has "objective" needs?
Can conservatism be understood through a communitarian lens, or is it a separate tradition altogether? Worded differently, are conservative views especially amenable to being formulated within a communitarian philosophical framework?
Thanks.
And what things does it advocate for ?
I see a lot of overlap between these philosophies and have joined both r/communitarians and r/distributism. Are any of the rest of you fans of both ideas?
